|
The Western Zhou Chariot Burial Pit,Xian
|
| |
 The
Western Zhou Chariot Burial Pit was unearthed at Zhangjiapo,
Chang'an County in 1955. In the Bronze Age, the war
chariot was the pre-eminent symbol of power. "Chariot-and-horse
pits" contain funerary objects for deceased slave-owners
of the Western Zhou dynasty. The slave buried as a sacrificial
offering testifies to the slave-owner's reactionary
class nature.
This pit is rectangle-shaped with a length
of 5.6 meters and depth of 2 meters. Inside the pit
there are two chariots, six horses and one slave. One
wooden chariot with only one thill and adorned with
bronze is hauled by four horses and was used in battle.
The other one hauled by two horses is decorated with
seashells and was used primarily for transport or recreation.
The unearthed chariots, the remains
of horses and their decorations demonstrate that the
handicraft industry of three thousand years ago -- such
as wood work, leather work, metal work and especially
the bronze production of this period -- had reached
quite an advanced technical standard.
|
|
