3rd-century celadon jar reflects ancient life in Jiangnan region

During the Three Kingdoms (220-280), a type of burial jar decorated with multiple images on its top became popular. It was called a granary jar.

This celadon jar with decorations on its top, dating to the Wu Dynasty (222-280), is an example. On the top of the jar, there is a three-floor building in the middle, around which birds and mice search for food in granaries, servants play different musical instruments, livestock are kept and a turtle bears a stele with inscriptions.

Excavated in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province in the 1930s, the jar is in the permanent collection of the Palace Museum. As a burial item, it represents the harvest scene and vivid life in the Jiangnan region more than 1,700 years ago.