On the greenish-blue glazed pottery jug unearthed from the Eastern Han tombs at Liaowei in Hepu County, Guangxi

Abstract

AbstractThis paper made comparative studies on the greenish-blue glazed pottery jug unearthed from a tomb in the Liaowei Cemetery of the late Eastern Han Dynasty with the green-glazed potteries of the same time produced at home and abroad in the aspects of typological features, making techniques and chemical compositions, and drew the conclusion that this pottery jug was made in the present-day southern Iraq or southwestern Iran around 43-200 CE, which was at the time and territory of the Parthian Empire (247 BCE-226 CE), or the Anxi in the historic literature of the Han Dynasty. The studies further pointed out that this jug was transported into Hepu through the maritime route as a utensil for daily use. Because there have not been records about the maritime communication between China and Parthia, the discovery of this pottery jug in Hepu expanded our understanding to the maritime communication in the Han Dynasty, so it has important academic values.