Lost and Gone: A Representational Study of Bronze Ornaments in the Ancient Dian Kingdom, China

Abstract

Amidst its diverse prehistoric civilizations, the Shizhaishan culture has provided evidence concerning the lives the ancient Dian people more than 2,000 years ago with its vivid and figurative excavated artifacts exhibiting exquisite craftsmanship and varied forms. One of the artifacts unearthed from Tomb M6, the “Golden Seal of the King of Dian,” matches exactly with descriptions in the Historical Records, serving as the only domestic case in which the “the dual evidence method” of historical research has been applied. Bronze ornaments embodying the sophistication of Bronze Age civilization in the Dian Kingdom have been excavated from this and subsequent large tombs, the cultural interaction between Dian and the Bronze Age plaques of the Scythians on the Eurasian steppe and the North System implies exchange between different prehistoric civilizations an issue that is still source of current academic debate. This paper provides an iconographic study of the Dian Kingdom bronze ornaments through the study of decorative motifs, inlaid materials, and the casting and gilding techniques. In this respect, we explore social production in the Dian Kingdom and contact between the civilizations of the East and the West across the “golden latitude” and connected by the “Southern Silk Road.” Our paper concludes that Bronze Ornaments are the concrete embodiment of the Ancient Chinese South-west highland and Western civilization in terms of the integration in the integration Dian culture. Therefore, this subject of is great value in terms of our understanding of both regional prehistory and cultural development.