A brief introduction to several pieces of silver and bronze artifacts unearthed on the southern outskirts of Datong City

A brief introduction to several pieces of silver and bronze artifacts unearthed on the southern outskirts of Datong City

"Cultural Relics", No. 09, 1977, Sun Peiliang

One

In 1970, the Datong City Museum cleaned up a Northern Wei architectural site on the north side of Gongnong Road in the southern suburbs of Datong City, and found a piece of eight-curved silver washing, a carved silver bowl, three gilded high-footed copper cups, and a stone carved square stone. In 1972, the first issue of "Cultural Relics" gave a brief introduction to the architectural site and six artifacts. The first volume of "Cultural Relics Unearthed During the Cultural Revolution", published in the winter of the same year, included all six artifacts. The attached Notes provide a brief description of each artifact.

The shape and ornamentation of several pieces of silver and bronze unearthed this time have the characteristics of Sassanid gold and silverware, which were obviously imported from the Western Regions. Especially because the site of excavation is in Datong-City, it is more noteworthy.

Datong was Pingcheng during the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Daowu Emperor Tuoba Jue set his capital here in the first year of Tianxing (398). During the reign of Emperor Taiwu (424-452), the western states had direct contacts with the Northern Wei, and Pingcheng became a gathering place for rare merchants and goods in the western region. The "Southern Qi Book of Wei Yu Biography" describes the furnishings and utensils of the Northern Wei court at that time: "Sitting on a charming mattress, the former Shi Jinxiang, a glass cup, a golden bowl, and a miscellaneous mouthpiece, set up a long plate of one foot, and a round plate of imperial food." There are woolen fabrics from Central Asia, glassware from the Great Qin, and gold and silver vessels from the Sassanid Persians (i.e., Iran). The five metal artifacts unearthed on the southern outskirts of Datong City were probably introduced to Pingcheng during the mid-fifth century to the wei capital's southward migration (Taihe 18th year, 494 AD).

These artifacts unearthed provide earlier physical proof of the history of friendly relations between China and Iran. This article focuses on the two pieces of silverware unearthed this time, the Eight-Curved Silver Wash and the Carved Flower Silver Bowl, and also talks about three pieces of tall copper cups of different styles.

Two

First of all, let's talk about the eight-curved silver wash.

According to the "Instructions", the height of this device is 4.5, the caliber is 23.8 X 14.5 cm. "Wash the heart and pound out the two sea beasts inside the oval. Small circle feet made of copper. "Judging from the ornamentation, it is relatively simple. The shape system is unique, that is, each song of the eight curves is deeply recessed in the belly of the instrument, and at the mouth edge, it is deeply coiled to the inside of the instrument, forming a small bend, and the bend of the mouth is made of honeysuckle shape. In this way, the device looks down to become an eight-petal flower shape, and when viewed from the side, the eight petals are eight arcs protruding from the mouth to the bottom of the vessel. The circle foot also composes eight songs with the shape of the instrument.

This eight-curved silver wash seems to be defined as a Sassanid vessel. Because there are several artifacts of the same type in Europe, all recognized as Sassanid artifacts, they can be compared. This form of artifact is called a Robe dish in Europe, and there are five pieces in total.

The Hermitage Museum in Leningrad has three pieces: a plain twelve-curved gold wash. Length 33.1 cm. The oval-shaped circle foot, the body without ornamentation, the shape is dignified. It is said to be a sacrificial vessel. The plates of the Pope book are marked as Sassanids. Fish pattern eight-curved silver wash. The size is unknown, the shape is simple, the heart is a new fish pattern, it has been spread, and only the outline remains. There is no circle foot at the bottom of the device. The Book of ZhaiLianswad is marked as a "Sassanid or post-Sassanid vessel". Maiko pattern eight-curved silver wash. Length 29.1 cm. The outer edge of the instrument is made of honeysuckle pattern, the central part of the protruding arc (or petal) on both sides of the instrument is carved crouching tiger, and the largest protruding part of the two ends is carved with a dancing female statue, long braid, wearing a flower crown, a bracelet, and a bare upper body. A woman holds a ribbon in both hands as a dance, and a woman holds an instrument in both hands as if she is clapping boards. The vines on both sides are striped, and there are small animals on them, like squirrels. In addition, there is a deer on each side. The faces and gestures of the dancers are like those seen in Indian sculpture and painting.

Of the three, the first was found in a cellar on a sand dune near Poltava in central Ukraine, Usser Union. The date of the cellar is said to be the seventh century AD. The provenance of the second piece is unknown. The third was discovered between 1780 and 1781 in the Sludka district of perm oblast in the Soviet Union.

The other two were found more than a hundred years ago in a mountain village in ostrog district of Wolyn Oblast in eastern Poland. The two pieces are now in the collections of two museums. One piece is a statue of a woman like a twelve-curved gilt silver wash, collected by the Polish Shatoryski Museum. Length 27.8 cm. The shape of the instrument is narrow and long, oval circle foot, the outer two ends are carved with a round arch, the inside of the door has a female figure, plump and stubborn, wearing a light and soft transparent long coat, drooping to the ankle, holding a bird in the right hand, like a pigeon, the left hand is a high foot cup, and both women are walking. There seems to be a round light behind a woman's head. There are tangled branches on both sides of the vessel with buds. There are "leaping" animals in the gaps of the tangle branches, like antelopes. This vessel is marked on the plate as a "Sassanid" vessel. One piece is a one-tree eight-curved silver wash with sheep wing animal pattern, in kiev state museum. Both ends of the vessel are carved with a single tree against a sheep, and on both sides are a petal in the middle to carve a lying lion, and the lying lion has a winged beast on each side. This pattern is associated with the astrological cult of ancient Iran. The solitary tree symbolizes the moon to the sheep, and the winged beast is called griffen. It is said to be a symbol of the sun or an incarnation of the sun god.

Compared with the Datong Eight-Curve Silver Wash, the above-mentioned five european vessels are somewhat different in shape and ornamentation. In terms of form, the five European instruments are all punched out one or two grooves on each side of the inner wall of the instrument, and the two ends of the grooves go directly to the mouth edge, so as to form the eight-curved or twelve-curve 2 Which is the inner wall of the beater of the Datong Silver Wash, making it an eight-sided arc (or eight petals) protruding from the mouth edge to the bottom of the instrument, which is obviously not the same as the 9th period in terms of technique. Judging from the ornaments, among the five European artifacts, the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad has a maiko pattern eight-curved silver wash and two artifacts originally excavated in the eastern part of Poland with carved figures, birds and animals, tangled branches and vines, which are particularly complex. Datong Eight-Curve Silver Wash only has a sea beast in the heart of the instrument, which is relatively simple, but this point is similar to the fish pattern Eight Curve Silver Wash. It is enough to point out here that the Eight-Curved Silver Wash unearthed in Datong and the five instruments hidden in Europe are the same type of things as the Qukou Yan Instrument.

Now, we can further explore the origin and era of this curved mouth.

The question of the origin of the curved mouth along the vessel has been raised in recent years along with the question of the origin of several other types of "Sassanid" vessels.

In the summer of 1970, the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, held a symposium on the archaeology of Asian art, at which two authors presented an article entitled "Iranian Silverware and Its Influence on China". The author notes: "All those artifacts that closely resemble chinese Tang Dynasty silverware were made outside the territory of the Sassanid Empire, and almost all of them were made about a hundred years after the final collapse of the Sassanid Dynasty, i.e. the murder of Isihou III near the Merv." The author proposes four pieces of silverware as a typical example of this type of artifact, one of which is a winged camel pattern with a handle pot, a ring handle cup, a straight cup, and the fourth, and the most important one considered by the author, that is, the ship-shaped curved mouth along the long plate, that is, the Hermitage Museum collection of maiko pattern eight-curved silver wash cited earlier in this article.

Regarding this ship-shaped curved mouth along the long plate, the author points out that the crouching deer carved on both sides of it, like the winged camel that lifts the first instrument, gives the impression of "Eastern Scythian", which is "unprecedented in central and western Iran", and the image of the dancer is very similar to that of ancient Afghan sculpture, and its posture and decoration are also "unprecedented in western Iran". Based on these characteristics, the author asserts that "all evidence suggests that it originated in the East, most likely in Sog-iad, and in particular in the 'Bukhara and Samarkand regions'.

Although the author is only making a theory of ornamentation here, he actually wants to prove that the form of the curved mouth along the vessel originated in Central Asia, and that it was made about a hundred years after the fall of the Sassanid Dynasty. This argument applies to the maiko-based eight-curved silver wash and even the other four instruments in European possession.

But the problem is that the Skuti animal print and the image of the maiko seen in Indian sculpture and painting on this eight-curved silver wash cannot appear only in Central Asia, but probably in eastern Iran. Throughout the Sabbath period (256 BC – 226 AD), eastern Iran, and especially Sistan, was a region of Cypriot activity. In ancient times, Sistan was named "Sakastene" (Sakastene) 0 Serbs for a long time, of course, it may leave some Skuti art influences. Considering the legend of Bahram Gur (420-440) summoning twelve thousand musicians, singers and dancers from India, it is not surprising that the image of an Indian dancer appears on Iranian silverware. Perhaps with this possibility in mind, the two authors quoted above, while advocating the theory of Central Asian origins, did not completely exclude eastern Iran. It should be said that it is more appropriate to deal with it in this way.

At this point, it can be seen that the Eight-Curved Silver Wash unearthed in Datong raises new questions:

First, chronologically, it would never have been "made about a hundred years after the fall of the Sassanid Dynasty." Because the site of this artifact was excavated, the Northern Wei Pingcheng City, was occupied by the Displaced People of Shuo Prefecture from the Xiaochang period (525-526), and the Hengshuo Prefectures were not owned by the Fu Wei Court. Since then, eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, and even Sheng Tang, the area around present-day Northern Yan is a desolate place. During the reign of Emperor Suzong of Tang (758-759), Yunzhou Lingxian County, Hedong Province, was yunzhong, that is, "Pingcheng, the capital of Later Wei, with seventy-three households and five hundred and six mouths", during this period, it was rare for extraterritorial precious metal vessels to flow in. Therefore, the Eight-Qu Silver Wash should be said to have flowed into Pingcheng during the period when the Northern Wei and Western Regions were greatly prosperous in transportation to the Wei capital (494 AD), no later than the 1920s. The last chronology of the Yungang stone inscription is Zhengguang (520-524), which proves that Pingcheng declined thereafter. It is reasonable to speculate that after the Wei capital moved south, it was rare for precious metal ware to flow directly into Pingcheng, so the era of Datong silver washing was still suitable from the middle of the fifth century to the end of the fifth century. In this way, it predates the aforementioned instruments of the same type nearly two centuries.

Secondly, as far as the artifact itself is concerned, eight parallel arcs or lobes protruding outward from the mouth edge to the bottom of the vessel are the only ones, at least for the time being. There is a "Sassanid or post-Sassanid" silver bowl in Stockholm, although there are twelve petals juxtaposed from the mouth edge to the bottom of the vessel, but the curve is very shallow, each petal is straight, not curved, and no small bends are formed along the mouth. And this instrument is said to be from Luoyang. The author also refers to this vessel, arguing that it is "neither Sassanid nor Sogdian". In terms of ornamentation, the two "sea beasts" in the oval shape of the Heart of the Datong Silver Washer are not fighting and eating like Skuti animals, but are playing and swirling, which may have something to do with the art of Ajanta. The honeysuckle pattern at the bend of the mouth has a long and long origin, and this pattern first appeared in West Asia, which is more general. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the source only based on the shape and ornamentation of the vessel. However, the author also mentions a fact that is worth noting, that is, the ship-shaped curved mouth vessel was originally a typical form of northern Iran from Tabarestan, and the Maiko-patterned eight-curved silver wash obtained from the Sludka place in the Hermitage Museum only proves that Sogdia also has such an instrument. If, as stated, the distribution of this type of artifact is still relatively wide, and the GreatEr One does not have the characteristics of Central Asia, can its source be traced to the Iranian mainland such as The Toppasan or Khorasan region? Of course, this is only a direction of exploration, and the facts have yet to be confirmed.

Three

Gilded engraved silver bowl, height 5 cm, caliber 8.5 cm. The mouth is extravagant, the neck is slightly concave, the abdominal wall is curved to the bottom, the bottom is round, and there are two concentric convex lines. The "Notes" state that "there are traces of looped feet at the bottom". It is a comparison with the three gilded high-footed copper cups unearthed at the same time, marked as "gilded high-carved foot copper cups", except that the object is not a high carving and the cup shape is not a high foot, and the shape of the instrument is almost exactly the same. Most of the utensils known to resemble bowls or shallow bowls and are of roughly the same size are equipped with a variety of tall feet. Among them are pottery from the second millennium BC, bronze ware from around the first millennium BC, and more from the Sassanid period, both silver and gold. Therefore, this carved silver bowl turned out to be a goblet.

Let's take another look at the era and region in which this carved silver bowl was made. Because the history of the existence of this instrument is too long, it is necessary to look at the shape system alone to determine its era; it needs to be analyzed in conjunction with the ornamentation to determine the generation.

The ornamentation of the carved silver bowl is very characteristic: the belly of the vessel is divided into four equal parts in the shape of a leaf, and a ring is one of the equal parts, and a bust is carved on the ground inside the ring. The common shape of the leaves in the abdomen, called acanthus leaves, is a perennial herb in the Mediterranean region. The most popular Corinthian stigma of the Hellenistic period was decorated with this leaf shape. This pattern is also common in sabbath and Sassanid architecture and artifacts.

The bust of the sculpture inside the ring is more prominent. The head is lateral, the chest is frontal, and the whole image is a posture of turning your head and looking directly to the right. Facial expression is a photographic or portrait technique, with large eyes, a high nose, wavy hair, a forehead covered in front and a back draped over the neck. The crown has a circle-shaped crown on the top of the head. A beaded necklace hangs around the neck. The tunic has five circles on each shoulder, a little circle, and the chest is scattered with fine dots, indicating the thorns and beads on the brocade robe.

According to the characteristics of such ornamentation, it is necessary to compare the Iranian coins of the Sabbath and Sassanid dynasties.

Start with the differences that are easy to discern. The bust on the silver bowl is fundamentally different from the king on the Sassanid coins. The characteristics of the upper body portrait of the Sassanid silver coin are: (1) the facial expression does not use the real technique, and does not pursue the appearance of the real person. (2) Special emphasis is placed on the characteristics of each king with different crowns, which are very complex with pheasant-shaped ornaments, eagle wings, crescent moons, serves, etc.

In contrast to the statues of kings on Sassanid coins, busts on carved silver bowls are characterized by: (1) facial expression using photographic techniques to force the face of real people, which is a feature of Hellenistic art, and (2) wearing only a simple circle-shaped crown with no other complicated decorations, which is basically the same as the coins of the kings who rested in the two centuries BC. These two points are also characteristic of the coins of the Seleucid kings of the Hellenistic state. The Sabbath Dynasty, a nomadic people who arose on the border between Khorasan province and Mazandran in northeastern Iran, had a low cultural level and was culturally influenced by Hellenistic influence after the overthrow of the Seleucid dynasty. The kings of the Sabbath used the title of "Protector of Greek Culture" (Phil-Hellene), the coins were made of ancient Greek Attica, and the pattern on the coins was also modeled on the coins of the Seleucid kings. According to these characteristics, the bust on the carved silver bowl should be related to the Sabbath Dynasty.

But this is not the same as saying that the carved silver bowl is an early artifact of the Sabbath Dynasty. The carved silver bowl has the sign of a late era. That is, the bust has a posture with the head as the side and the chest as completely frontal, from the chest as the side (the coin of the early Sabbath Dynasty) to the full front, which is a change that has undergone three or four centuries. The upper body of the first and second century AD is mostly a slightly sideways posture, which can be called three-quarters of the side. The same approach was taken to early Sassanid carvings, such as the famous Naxx ilusdan rock relief shapur I (241-274) capturing the Roman Emperor Valerian. In this high-relief statue, Shabul I is a side figure with his head sideways and his body slightly to the left. By the fourth century AD, the statues tended to be more sideways until the fall of the Sassanid Dynasty, and the statues of the Sassanid kings on the coins were completely fronted on the sides of the head and the chest. The bust on the engraved silver bowl happens to be like this. It can be concluded from this that the era of carved silver bowls will not be earlier than the fourth century.

Another feature of the carved silver bowl upper bust is that the head wears a circle-shaped crown without two straps hanging behind the head. In the coins of the kings of rest, two bands are usually attached to the crown. The shape of the crowns of the Sassanid Dynasty was more complex, with two straps floating behind the head and becoming more prominent. As for the crown without a headband, it does not belong to the king. A bronze statue was found on the site of the shrine in Shami, Huzestan province, western Iran, dressed as an Iranian warrior, with Hellenistic influences, and was a first-century AD object. The figure wears a particularly wide circle-shaped crown, no straps sagging behind the head, and no patterns such as thorns and pearls on the clothes. It is said that it should be like a small king who divides one side or a statue of the governor of the Sabbath Dynasty, and the portrait with a crown-like broadband tied around his head is a portrait of a royal family O No matter what it is said, it is considered that no belt is not a king, at best it can only be a small king or a member of the royal family.

In this way, the following two points can be deduced about the bust on the carved silver bowl: (1) the costume of the bust and the Sabbath Dynasty

The statues of kings on the coins are basically the same, and their facial expression is also a Hellenistic photographic technique, so it can be seen that the figures represented in the bust belong to one of the members of the Sabbath ruling group known as the "protectors of Greek culture", (2) the bust chest is a feature of the fourth century, when the reign of the Sabbath Dynasty in all of Iran was replaced by the Sassanid Dynasty, so the characters represented by the bust can only be the broad and small kings under the "King of the Kings" of the Sassanid Dynasty. The above analysis of the bronze samurai statue of the Shami Shrine is supported by this.

If the era of the carved silver bowl is not wrong, then where is the territory of this little king of rest who is in the position of a vassal of the Sassanid Dynasty? That is to say: where did the carved silver bowl come from to Pingcheng?

After the Sassanid Dynasty ruled all of Iran, there was a small dynasty in Armenia that lasted until 429. However, Armenia was not a "Silk Road", the territory was far away, and the small dynasty died in 429, when the Northern Wei had not yet sent envoys to the Western Regions, and it was impossible to have relations with the Northern Wei.

In addition, western Iran is the area where the Sassanid Dynasty arose, and it is impossible to allow a former dynasty remnant stronghold to be a small monarch. Eastern Iran is an area where the Sassanid Dynasty has weaker control, and there may be remnants of the former dynasty as small monarchs. However, in places like Sistan in southeastern Iran, although it was originally the Eastern Sabbath Kingdom under the rule of "Surena" (the name of the Marshal of the Sabbath Period), by the fourth and fifth centuries there may not have been large or small land owned by the remnants, and that area is also far from the "Silk Road", which was originally a land state of "Han envoys", and it is still difficult to communicate with the Northern Wei.

Thus, the only remaining area to consider is Khorasan in northeastern Iran. Khorasan West bordered Toppasdan (present-day Mazandran), and its capital, Muludu, was an outpost of Iran for both the Sabbath and the Sassanids. During the Sabbath period, Mulu was a state (Satrapy) of the Kingdom of Sabbath(s) o Book of the Later Han Dynasty, "The Kingdom of Sabbath ... Its eastern boundary is Mulu City, which is called Little Rest. After the fall of the Sabbath Dynasty, this "Little Sabbath" probably submitted to the Sassanid Dynasty and continued to exist as a vassal; when the Edict was strong, it was also called subject to Dida. The "Zhida" article of the "Northern History of the Western Regions" says: "His people (i.e., the Dida people) were fierce and capable of fighting, and the Western Regions Kangju, Yumu, Shale, Sabbath, and the thirty small kingdoms were all subordinate to them." Regarding the geographical outlook of this sabbath, the same passage "the resting country" says:

"It borders Kangju to the north, Persia to the west, and Ōtsuki to the northwest." "Kangju" is the old name of the Han Dynasty, and its homeland is about the upper and lower reaches of the medicinal water in the east, the lower reaches of the Wuhu River in the west, and part of the basin of the Nanbao NamiShui (now translated as Lafshan River, Zerafshan). In the fifth century, the Otsuki clan roughly occupied the territory of present-day Afghanistan. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the northern (actually northeastern) border was bordered by the kangju homeland and the southeast by the Great Moon clan, which was the Place of Mulu City, which was code-named "Little Rest" in the Han Dynasty, and the northern region of Khorasan, where it was located.

In terms of its relationship with the carved silver bowl, there are three points to note about the Sabbath state that occupies the northern region of Khorasan. First, this country was the key to the "Silk Road", and it was close to the edge of Central Asia, which was easy to communicate with the Northern Wei at that time, and its handicrafts were easy to flow into Pingcheng. Second, the land where the country is located is known for its richness, with gold and silver mines, and for making gold and silver utensils. A Persian geographical work from the end of the tenth century records that the land of Nakiyat (Country) said: "Its land is rich in gold and silver mines, and treasures such as those taken from the mountains." ...... And produce a variety of fabrics, gold, silver, turquoise products" festival. Third, the seat of the state was occupied by the Greeks under alexander's command during his eastern invasion. During the Bactrian Kingdom period, it became a state of the Bactrian Kingdom. During this period, Hellenistic art played a certain influence in the region, and later when the Ōtsuki clan conquered Bactria and ruled the region, the Hellenistic influence did not weaken. On the other hand, after the rise of the Sassanid Dynasty, the successor of the Archimani Dynasty, de-Hellenistic tendencies, focused on the development of indigenous national forms in art, and the artistic tradition of the ancient Persian Empire was further developed. This artistic current originated in western Iran. It gradually spread eastward, reaching eastern Iran and Central Asia, and merging with the Hellenistic currents left over from the previous period. The Sabbath of the fourth and fifth centuries coincided with the confluence of these two artistic currents, and the carved silver bowl had both some characteristics of traditional Iranian art and the style of Hellenistic art, indicating that it was the product of the confluence of the two artistic currents. It can be inferred from this that the carved silver bowl of Pingcheng should have been imported from Khorasan in northeastern Iran.

Four

The three tall copper cups 1 and the engraved silver bowl are all made in the same genre and should be from the same source. For example, gilded high-carved tall foot copper cup, gilded inlaid high foot copper cup, the pattern configuration method is the same as the carved silver bowl, that is: are all four equal divisions, in the format of four Arkantus leaves spaced four into portraits, portraits have the characteristics of Hellenistic expression techniques, gilded high carved tall foot copper cups appear more prominent (such as the long round face of the figure and the flowing clothing pattern).

Gilded inlaid with a tall copper cup, there is a curly grass stripe under the mouth edge, and two beads are applied to the edge, which is a common ornament in Iran. The abdomen of this vessel has four rolled leaves erected, and there are red-green inlays between the ornaments, which are gemstones and turquoises. Similar artifacts are also recorded in the Review of Persian Art. There is a gilded inlaid small silver bowl excavated decades ago in a cellar near Nihavand, with a diameter of 8.5 centimeters, and the ornamentation is also divided into four equal parts, with four Arkantus leaves spaced by four lotus petals, and turquoise inlaid with scattered flowers on the near edge, which is also a favorite decoration in Iran. Turquoise is produced in Khorasan, and the silverware inlaid with it may have been made in Khorasan. Phyllis Ackerman designated this vessel, along with several others unearthed with it, as "East Parthian" (i.e., East Rest) vessels. The gilded copper cup inlaid with gold unearthed in Datong is basically the same as this small silver bowl, and the date and location of production should not be too far away.

Gilded high-footed copper cup, "belly decorated with curly branch grapes, there are five climbing branches of the boy". The grape leaves and grapes are sketched, and on the plate you can also see a bird on the vine, like an eagle, and the bird should be more than this one. The subject matter of the boy harvesting grapes was used at the beginning of Hellenistic art, and this kind of subject matter is related to the Dionysian customs of Bactria. During the Sabbath period, this custom prevailed in eastern Iran. There is a silver pot in the Sassanid silverware collection of the British Museum, and there are several small holes in the bottom of the pot, presumably for squeezing grape juice. The ornamentation is mainly made of two vines covering the body, with six birds (cocks, parrots, eagles, etc.) and two foxes. There were two naked boys with buns on their heads, one pulling grapes, the other carrying a back pocket, and in front of him was a container full of grapes.

The 6th issue was identified as a sixth or seventh century object and was discovered in 1893 in Mazandran, an area immediately adjacent to Khorasan. The ornamentation of the Datong gilded high-footed copper cup resembles this vessel, and its source should not be too far away.

Here we should also talk about the stone country that was excavated at the same time. The excavation of this stone sculpture is only twenty meters from the excavation of the above two silverware and three bronze artifacts, which should belong to the same building. 砚" square four-legged, made of limestone. Surrounded by reliefs, dancing, man riding beasts, dragons, birds and two ear cup-shaped pools, and reliefs on the side of the brick are carved with lux, animals, etc." From the point of view of ornamentation, it reflects the fusion of China's Han Dynasty artistic tradition and foreign forms. The images of birds and four-legged beasts are thin and vigorous, with Chinese paintings like stone carvings, waterfowl and fish are commonly used in Han Dynasty stone carvings, and the form of ear cups is more accustomed to the Han Dynasty - this is an inherent tradition. The stone surface and the stone side are decorated with beads and lotus petals, and even the expression of Lux's fat body is similar to the stone carvings in the tombs of Yungang and Sima Jinlong, which also shows the influence of Iranian and Central Asian art. Therefore, in terms of shape and ornamentation, this stone stone stone shows the characteristics of the fifth century, and the site of this stone stone excavated should also be the Northern Wei architectural site that is not long from the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Five metal crafts were excavated at the same architectural site as the stone stones, which is more enough to prove that they were introduced to Pingcheng no later than the year of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Five

Finally, a few more comments.

First, the traditional friendship and historical ties between China and Iran have a long history. As early as the second century BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty learned of Iran's sabbath from Zhang Qian, who was on an expedition to the western region, and immediately sent envoys to the rest. The Envoy received a grand and warm reception at rest. This is the beginning of the establishment of friendship between the two countries. Since then, the two countries have sent envoys and friendly exchanges between the people, and the history is endless. Iran is the intermediate station of the "Silk Road" across the Asian continent, through which China and Iran conduct economic and cultural exchanges, and there are many examples. The two pieces of silverware and three pieces of bronze excavated from the southern suburbs of Datong City mentioned in this article can be tried to be Sassanid artifacts from Khorasan in eastern Iran, according to the relevant records in China's historical records and the comparative confirmation of a few related objects. Of course, this is the only one

.73 is an idea. But if this assumption is not very different from the facts, these artifacts once again provide a physical example of the history of friendly relations and cultural exchanges between China and Iran, and an earlier example.

Second, for the study of Iranian art, the five metal artifacts unearthed on the southern outskirts of Datong City have a dual significance. First, the Iranian metal crafts before the Islamic period have been passed down to the present, and there are very few. According to the book "A Review of Persian Art" published more than thirty years ago, including the public and private collections of various countries, there are only more than 100 pieces of silverware and more than 20 pieces of gold. As for the so-called Sassanid bronzes, most of them are artifacts after the fall of the Sassanid Dynasty. Whether new discoveries have been made in recent years is unknown. The five artifacts of Datong City add important physical materials to the study of Iranian art, and several things are earlier and rarer forms, which are more valuable. The second is the so-called Sassanid instrument, which has always been recognized as difficult to determine the era. The five artifacts of Datong City, because they originate from the former site of the Northern Wei capital, and the Northern Wei capital has an exact chronology, which is enough to be used as a basis for determining the era.

Third, these artifacts also have important reference value for the study of the origin of the "Sassanid" vessel. Some of the karmic examples of the Sassanid artifacts have been proven to be made in Central Asia, but whether it is therefore considered that the origin of all Sassanid artifacts has become a problem requires careful consideration. In any case, it is inappropriate to say, as some authors have argued, that "we know very little about the art of the Sassanid period, and we cannot even believe that there was such art in archaeology", because it is tantamount to saying that Iran did not have such a highly developed metal craft during this centuries-long historical period. If so, it is difficult to explain how the more magnificent metal crafts of Iran's Islamic period came about. Therefore, further research is still necessary on the issue of the origin of Sassanids. The discovery of the large homology is just useful for the study of this problem.