Hu jar

Pottery models such as this were common features within the furnishings of Han tombs that were intended to supply the occupant with the necessities required for sustenance in the afterlife. Not only do they document religious practices in which the life in the hereafter was identified with that of the living, but they also accurately record early Chinese architectural forms that are no longer extant.

The small granary jar is an unassuming document of the Han dynasty’s monumental achievement of establishing an orderly state system of food storage, preservation, and distribution. Similar miniature granaries are preserved with painted inscriptions between the banding identifying their contents: wheat, barley, millet, soybean, and hemp seed. The names of the contents are followed in each case by words that may be translated as "ten thousand piculs [a measure of weight comparable to but heavier than the English stone]."