Green-glazed Bear-foot Pottery Granary with Bowstring Pattern

In Han dynasty burials, ceramics were numerous and diverse. Some of them were actual functional objects but most of them were “substitute objects” (ming qi), specifically made for the grave. This ceramic granary is a kind of ming qi, which first appeared in Warring States period burials and became popular during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han (r. 141-87 BCE). It was used with ming qi models of ovens and wells.