Rabbit Zun

Bronze ware from the Western Zhou Dynasty

22.2 cm high, 31.8 cm long

Excavated from Tomb M8 of the Jinhou Cemetery in Beizhao Village, Quwo County in 1992

The rabbit is in a prostrate position, with its eyes looking forward, its ears pressed back together, its legs curled up, and its abdomen hollow. The sides of the rabbit are decorated with three layers of raised circular patterns, from the inside to the outside, which are spiral patterns, oblique thunder patterns with four eyes alternating, and connected thunder patterns. The use of rabbits as a vessel is the first time in bronze ware. In the tombs of the Jinxianhou couple (M8 group) and the Jinmuhou couple (M64 group) in the Jinhou Cemetery, there are several bronze rabbit vessels buried as ritual vessels, and they are of different sizes and shapes, which is a wonder.