Changes in historical perceptions of Qin Shi Huangdi, first emperor of unified China

My husband and I have been watching the "Qin Empire Epic", a Chinese produced series, on Amazon Prime.  Although I can't always keep up with the subtitles (I can't read that fast from across the room!) I have found the history of the unification of China under Qin Shi Huangdi, initially called Yíng Zhèng, very interesting. Most references to China's first emperor that I had read, mostly information accompanying the three different Terracotta Warriors exhibits I have attended, seemed to emphasize the emperor's brutality, as portrayed in traditional Chinese historiography.  But, I discovered, like Roman propaganda vilifying the emperor Nero, perceptions of Yíng Zhèng's actions need to be considered in the political context of the fierce competition between warlords that dominated the tumultuous Warring States Period.

Although I haven't seen any reference to burying Confucian scholars alive yet (we're on episode 78), I was researching some of the portrayed events and found that recent research suggests that the "burying of the Confucian scholars alive" tale, one of Qin Shi Huangdi's most heinous reported acts, is now considered a Confucian martyrs' legend.  It is based on an incident where the emperor ordered the execution of a group of alchemists who had attempted to mislead him.  But later, during the Han dynasty, Confucian scholars, who had served the Qin loyally, used that incident, claiming the alchemists were Confucianists, to distance themselves from the failed dynasty and ingratiate themselves to the new administration. So, just like in the west, tales of martyrdom were apparently used for political manipulation.

Reassessments of Qin Shi Huangdi's rule in more modern times seem to oscillate between the traditional view and a perception of the first emperor as a hero of Chinese history.  In Hong Shidi's biography "Qin Shi Huang," published by the state during the Maoist period, the first emperor is portrayed as a far-sighted ruler who destroyed the forces of division and established the first unified, centralized state by rejecting the feudal past. He was criticized, though, for not being as thorough as he should have been, in crushing counter-revolutionaries which resulted in hidden subversives under the leadership of the chief eunuch Zhao Gao seizing  power after the emperor's death and using it to restore the old feudal order.  His famous quest for immortality, so widely acclaimed in exhibit literature, was scarcely mentioned (and hasn't been in this Prime series either so far). The series does portray the emperor as occasionally short-tempered and impulsive, even stubborn, however, although ultimately he is seen willing to reconsider some of his more drastic edicts if provided with convincing argument.  

As a Roman history enthusiast, what I find totally astounding about the Warring States Period is the sheer number of combatants reported in the battles.  These events coincide roughly with the Second Punic War in the west.  Military engagements during the Warring States Period in the east are described as involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers on each side.  In fact, during the series, one state boasts of being able to supply over one million soldiers. In contrast, at Cannae, according to Polybius, the Romans fielded 86,400 infantry and cavalry and Hannibal's Carthaginians only 50,000 and it is considered to be one of the largest engagements during that conflict.  By the time the decisive battle of Zama was fought, the Romans fielded less than half that number.

I told my husband that the Romans were really fortunate the Chinese "world" did not encompass them at the time!

Reproduction of Terracotta Warrior "painted" with colored light to illustrate how the figure once appeared before being interred in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang in 3rd century BCE China that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

A Qin Dynasty terracotta warrior from the tomb of Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang 210 BCE that I photographed at The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois

Terracotta Commanding General from the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang China 210-209 BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

Closeup of a Terracotta Qin archer's braided hair from tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang China 210-209 BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

Model of workers assembling the terracotta army for Emperor Qin Shihuang's tomb in the 3rd century BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

Model of workers assembling the terracotta army for Emperor Qin Shihuang's tomb in the 3rd century BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

Bronze Goose found in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang Qin Dynasty China 221-206 BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

Model depicting workers assembling a terracotta horse from the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang China 210-209 BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

Stone armor from the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang China 210-209 BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

Replica of a 2-ton bronze chariot from the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang China 210-209 BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

A terracotta cavalryman and his horse from the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang China 210-209 BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

Bronze tiger-shaped weight from the Warring States period China 475-221 BCE BCE that I photographed at the "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington.

 

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru to open October 16 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art

Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru featuring 192 Artifacts, Including the "most-impressive collection of Andean gold ever to travel the world", is coming to the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida, October 16, 2021.  Artifacts in the exhibition are on loan from Museo Larco in Lima, Peru, and Museo de Sitio Manuel Chávez Ballón, in Aguas Calientes, Peru. Objects that belonged to noble Andean lords, include a fully intact gold attire of a Chimú Emperor that dates to 1300 CE.  Said to be rivaled only by Ancient Egypt in longevity and by the Roman Empire in engineering, Andean societies dominated a substantial segment of South America for over 3,000 years until the fall of the Incan Empire in the 16th century CE. 

Guests will be taken to the mysterious city in the sky, Machu Picchu, built and abandoned within a century. They will continue on a journey through the vast expanse of Andean history, traveling alongside the mythical hero Ai Apaec, and discovering the mysteries of Andean cosmology.

Gold headdress depicting feline head with feathers, bird-beak nose, and stepped designs with volutes, 1300-1532 CE, courtesy of Museo Larco, Peru

Image: 1 - 800 CE 14-karat gold allow headdress depicting human head with half-moon headdress and zoomorphic figures (dragons) with feline heads, courtesy of Museo Larco, Peru.

Gold and turquoise nose ornament depicting figure with half-moon and club-head headdress, circular ear ornaments and loincloth, holding a rattle, 1 - 800 CE, courtesy of Museo Larco, Peru

Ear ornament of gold, shell, and stone (turquoise or malachite), depicting eight iguanas. Four of the iguanas are gold and four are turquoise, 1-800 CE, courtesy of Museo Larco, Peru

Copper funerary mask with applications of shell and stone, depicting an anthropomorphic visage with feline fangs, 1 - 800 CE, courtesy of Museo Larco, Peru

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

The use of color on early Mesopotamian sculpture

Researchers using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy have discovered ancient Mesopotamian art, like classical art of Greece and Rome, was often brightly colored although studies have shown the number of colors used appears to be limited to shades of red and black.  

"Red pigments consist almost entirely of haematite, black is either bitumen or a carbonized product. White is almost non-existent (white lead, gypsum), apart from rare cases where it is used as color lightener for the skin. We did not find either blue or green. It is difficult to judge whether this lack reflects an ancient reality or not. On statues, as well as in most wall paintings, pigments were hardly ever mixed. This seems to be a conscious choice, as mixing pigments is not technically difficult." - Astrid Nunn, Adjunct Professor for Near Eastern Archaeology (retired) at the University of Würzburg.

However, scholars noted distinct shifts in color intensity over time.  Skin color in the third millennium was depicted as orange, yellowish brown, red brown, and brown but in the second millennium, there was a general change to bright red and red brown.  By the first millennium, skin color became notably darkened.

Reading this, I couldn't help but wonder about any correlation between changes in skin tone depictions and recorded migrations and conquests by different groups.  However, Professor Nunn does not mention any studies of that nature.  However, she does point out that skin color was derived from a combination of realism mixed with artistic conventions and social determinants, which in turn are subject to symbolic meaning.

This is further complicated by the ancients descriptions of color including textures and other characteristics.

"Taking the materiality of colors (and not simply their hue and chroma) as a starting point enables us to understand why ancient terms that are translated as dazzling, shining, lustrous, brilliant and translucent, or, inversely, dark, poorly lit, dim and dull, must be considered a – positive or negative – color category," Nunn observes. "In Akkadian literature, red on the body, especially on the face, was very positive...However, in Sumerian and Akkadian texts, gods (in particular the sun god Utu), heroes and kings sport beards referred to as lapis lazuli. Thus these words also mean bright and shiny. Despite the reference to lapis lazuli (blue) being conceivable, the shininess of the beard was just as important as its hue."

Of course I have seen objects such as the bull-headed lyres recovered from the royal cemetery of Ur, dated to 2550-2450 CE, with beards literally made of lapis lazuli so describing beards in this way could have been quite precise if the statues of the gods were thought to represent the gods themselves.

Surprisingly, researchers found that even sculpture crafted of expensive, imported stone like diorite was often painted over, despite the lustrous beauty of the stone itself.

Read more about it:  https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2021/05/mesopotamian-sculpture 

 

Millenium, Gypsum, that I photographed at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia

Reconstructed color on the statue of a man with similar garment now in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, courtesy of Astrid Nunn.

Bull-headed lyre recovered from the royal cemetery of Ur, Iraq, 2550-2450 BCE, Gold, with Lapis Lazuli beard that I photographed at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

First Look - Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins at the newly reopened Getty Villa

 Today's featured "Antiquities Alive" virtual exhibit - The first batch of images from my friend Allan Gluck of the "Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins" exhibit at the newly reopened Getty Villa: 

Head of a God, Neo-Sumerian, 2150-2000 BCE, Terracotta, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Head of a Man, possibly a ruler, Sumerian, 2700-2600 BCE, Limestone, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Head of a ruler, Amorite, about 1840 BCE, Gabbro, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Bronze model of a chariot, Sumerian, 2900 - 2340 BCE, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Plaque with King Gilgamesh killing the monster Humbaba, Amorite, 2000 - 1600 BCE, terracotta, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Relief fragment with royal chariot and officers, Neo-Assyrian, 668-627 BCE, Gypsum, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a high-status woman, Neo-Sumerian, 2150-2000 BCE, Chlorite, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a high-status woman, Neo-Sumerian, 2150-2000 BCE, Chlorite, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a bull, Proto-urban, about 3000 BCE, black limestone, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a dog dedicated to the goddess Ninisina, Amorite, 1894-1866 BCE, Steatite, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a dog dedicated to the goddess Ninisina, Amorite, 1894-1866 BCE, Steatite, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a dog dedicated to the goddess Ninisina, Amorite, 1894-1866 BCE, Steatite, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a high-status woman, Akkadian or Neo-Sumerian, 2200-2000 BCE, Alabaster with traces of pigment, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a human-headed bull, Neo-Sumerian, 2150-2000 BCE, Chlorite, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a woman holding a branch, Sumerian, about 2450 BCE, alabaster, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of a woman holding a branch, Sumerian, about 2450 BCE, alabaster, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Statuette of the demon Pazuzu, Neo-Assyrian, 934-610 BCE, Bronze, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

Wall painting fragment with a man's head, Neo-Assyrian, 850-650 BCE, painted clay, now in the collections of the Louvre, courtesy of Allan Gluck

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

Neolithic cheese production

 In 1981, archaeologists studying key farming developments proposed that farm communities adopted dairying sometime between 4,000 and 3,500 BCE and  began using livestock for more than just meat.

"Animal bones from sites in the British Isles showed patterns of which cows were slaughtered—lots of young males and older females—it is consistent with what you would find in a dairying economy,” observed archaeologist Peter Bogucki.  

Bogucki had also noticed an unusual type of pottery at a number of sites around Poland: fragments of pots that had been perforated with small holes. Sieve sherds were frequently found at sites dating as far back as the Neolithic period. But other archaeologists proposed they may have been used only as honey strainers or for braziers.

Bogucki analyzed animal remains from Linear Pottery Culture settlements and concluded that Linear Pottery settlers seldom hunted for food and relied heavily on cattle. There were also almost no remains of pigs, a far more efficient meat source than cattle.  He concluded that raising cattle for meat alone would have made no economic sense as the herds would have consumed too much food over too long a time. Furthermore, production of milk alone would not justify dairy farming either unless it could be converted into something more storable. So, he proposed the sieves were being used to produce cheese.  

In 2013, using a technique to analyze lipid remnants in ancient pottery developed by Biochemist Richard Evershed of the University of Bristol, Bogucki was finally able to provide compelling evidence that ancient farmers used 7,200-year-old perforated pottery to separate low lactose cheese curds from whey, an important innovation since Neolithic Europeans were generally unable to digest lactose. Researchers also think the development of cheese production along with other fermented milk products may have reduced infant mortality as well and allowed for earlier weaning, decreasing the birth interval and potentially increasing population.

Read more about it: https://phys.org/news/2018-09-earliest-mediterranean-cheese-production-revealed.html and https://www.futurity.org/neolithic-strainer-hints-at-origin-of-cheese/

Images: Neolithic pottery from Dalmatia that was found to contain milk and fermented milk products when residue within the vessels was analyzed for carbon isotopes.  Image courtesy of phys.org.

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!