A Survey Of Terracotta Dogs Of The Han Dynasty In Guanzhong Area

Since 1949,Shanxi Province has carried out large-scale urban construction in Guanzhong area,and has also carried out a series of archaeological excavations to clean up a large number of ancient tombs and ancient sites.This paper mainly collects and arranges dog-shaped figurines unearthed in the tombs of the Han Dynasty which can be found in Guanzhong area.On this basis,the classification and staging are carried out by using the method of archeological typology.In the early period of the Western Han Dynasty,the dog-shaped figurines were larger in size,more single in shape,finely made,paid attention to realism,mainly molded,and the details such as ears,mouth and nose would be further molded,the clay gray pottery was the majority,and the specifications of unearthed tombs were high.In the late Western Han Dynasty,the terracotta warriors were still dominated by clay gray pottery,and there was also a low-calcareous yellow tire,which continued the early realistic style,slightly reduced the degree of fineness compared with the previous period,with moderate proportions,concise techniques,and the appearance of a two-mode side-lying watchdog image.Unearthed tombs are not limited to high-grade tombs,but begin to appear in low-grade ordinary civilian tombs,but a small number.From Xinmanang to the early Eastern Han Dynasty,the shape and number of dog-shaped figurines increased further,appearing the squatting posture that was not seen in the early stage.During this period,the dog-shaped figurines carried out some deformation and exaggeration on the basis of realism.The combination of objective performance and subjective reproduction is smaller than the previous stage.Clay gray pottery is the main ceramic,accompanied by a small amount of red pottery and glazed pottery.The number of dog-shaped figurines unearthed in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was thelargest,and the types of shapes and firing methods were more diversified.The manufacturing methods were mainly molded,two-molded and combined with molding and kneading.The main popular crouching and standing posture,but also running posture and hunting posture,the production level gap is large,the pottery is still mainly clay gray pottery,followed by sand lime pottery,clay red pottery,red brown pottery,clay red pottery surface applied green glaze.Through these data,we can find out the development of dog-shaped figurines from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty in Guanzhong area,and have a clearer and intuitionistic understanding of the level of craftsmanship and the artistic appearance of the dog-shaped figurines.