Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Column with Dragons and Inscriptions
Not on view
This unusual stone column, although missing its top and base, exemplifies the monuments that lined the aboveground “spirit ways” leading to Eastern Han tombs. An inscription indicates that the column marked the tomb of a local official. Fluted columns were rare in Han-dynasty China and may have been inspired by the columns associated with King Ashoka (ca. 269–232 B.C.) of Mauryan India, a result of contact between the two countries.
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