Diplomacy, Trade and Power Dressing on the Periphery of the Han Empire

Summary

Dress serves as a potent marker of political, cultural and social identity for both the living and the dead. This paper investigates two very different "social skins" worn by elites after death focusing on the silk cap, tunic and dress found in Krugan 6 at Noin Ula in northern Mongolia (early first century CE) and the jade burial suit worn by Zhao Mo (d. 122 BCE), the King of Nanyue, who was buried in the south of China in modern Guangzhou. Although separated by time and navigating different power differentials, both men ruled states that were rivals to the Han Empire and wore burial attire made from status-defining materials that existed within an important nexus of diplomacy and trade across Eurasia. This comparative case study will address larger questions relating to the role and impact of trade and exchange on elite dress and the skillful use of materials and objects of foreign manufacture in dress and adornment to express political and/or cultural identity in a mortuary context.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The Dynamism of Contact and Exchange in Early Central and East Asia

Keywords

Spatial Coverage