Eastern Han Dynasty Rooster Statuette

The Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-250) was afflicted by political conflicts and social turmoil towards the end of its imperial power; yet, it showed great adherence to early imperial Chinese traditions and stylistic features in its production. Both the quantity and quality of ancient Chinese terracotta figurines reached their peak during the Han Dynasty. During this period, a wide variety of terracotta figurines, reflecting different identities and services, were finely executed in great detail and then placed into burial sites. Ostentatiously displaying such gods, known as mingqi (冥器) in Chinese, inside the tombs was not only to embellish funeral offerings, but also to further their services to the tomb owners in the afterlife. Mingqi were usually modelled as an intimation of either common objects that once played a vital role in domestic life, or as zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, that were closely related to the deceased when they were alive. Zoomorphic terracotta figurines with naturalistically rendered features and details had been absent in Chinese burial history until the advent of the Western Han Dynasty. Pottery images of roosters were common in ancient China, since the rooster was not only a common domestic anima; but also, one of the zodiac signs.