Cowry Container with a Bull and Rider in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2017

Cowry Container with Bull and Rider


Object Details

Period: Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 9)

Culture: China

Medium: Bronze

Dimensions: H. 19 11/16 in. (50 cm); Diam. of cover 9 13/16 in. (25 cm)

Classification: Metalwork

Credit Line: Lent by Yunnan Provincial Museum


This object was found at Shizhaishan, an ancient site associated with the Dian people, who are cited in the chapter on “southwestern barbarians” in the ancient Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian). Cowry containers may have been converted from bronze drums; the addition of sculpted figures transformed their top surfaces into decorative covers. They began to appear at the peak of the Bronze Age, when cowry shells entered circulation as currency. But as contact increased between the Dian and the Western Han, bronze coins supplanted cowry shells, and containers such as this one may have fallen out of use.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/640963