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Shifting materials: variability, homogeneity and change in the beaded ornaments of the Western Zhou

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Peter Hommel  and
Margaret Sax
Peter Hommel
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX12PG, UK (Email: peter.hommel@arch.ox.ac.uk)
Margaret Sax
Affiliation:
The British Museum, London WC1B 3DG, UK (Email: msax@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Academic interest in the elaborate bead assemblages recovered from graves of the Western Zhou elite has grown in recent years. Beads and beaded ornaments have been seen as both markers of external contact and evidence of change in the Zhou ritual system. Recent study of these bead assemblages, however, indicates that they may also have reflected shifting political circumstances. The use of different bead materials and forms suggests a trend to centralised production and control of manufacture, particularly from the later tenth century BC. The authors correlate a move towards readily manufactured materials with evidence for widespread elite intermarriage, and consider a possible tension between production and the socio-political strategies of the Zhou court.

Keywords

ChinaWestern Zhoubeadsgrave goodselite tombscarnelianfaiencetixingpai
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 342 , December 2014 , pp. 1213 - 1228
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

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