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© Brill, Leiden 2006 JEAA 5, 1–4 ORDINARY MYSTERIES: INTERPRETING THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD OF HAN SICHUAN BY MICHAEL NYLAN (University of California, Berkeley) Abstract In this article I present three ideas designed to challenge us to look harder at the riches that the Han tomb tiles and figurines from Sichuan represent. After noting briefly the ways in which the tomb represents a “well-protected home,” I will argue first that the scenes that now appear most straightforward and easily interpreted may once have communicated far more complex ideas; second, that multiple metaphorical meanings attached to certain images can be established by reference to other sites as far away from Sichuan as Shandong, on the northeastern seacoast; and third, that what we now—quite anachronistically—call the “art of the Sichuan tombs” nonetheless exhibits several noteworthy features that are entirely distinctive to the area. It is the mysterious and the unusual that tend to spark our interest—not the conventional and the familiar. At first glance, the Sichuan 四川 sculptures and tomb tiles that date to the Han 漢 Dynasty (the same time period as the Roman empire) look familiar, even humdrum. However lively their style, they appear to depict mundane scenes that
Journal of East Asian Archaeology – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 2003
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