Liu Zunzhi 劉尊志, Handai mu wai sheshi yanjiu: Yi wanghou muzang yu zhong-xiaoxing muzang wei cankao 漢代墓外設施研究：以王侯墓葬与中小型墓葬為参考 (Auxiliary Surrounding Structures of Han Dynasty Tombs. Case Studies on Tombs of the Nobility and Small- and Medium-Sized Tombs), Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe 科學出版社, 2021. ISBN 978-7-03-068149-2, 718 pages, 278 RMB.
Reviewed by Eric Bouteiller (PhD candidate EPHE-PSL, CRCAO)
This timely book shines a new light on archaeology of the Han period (206 BCE–220 CE), collecting almost all the recently published data concerning above-ground funerary features of tombs left by Han era social elites. It includes numerous high-quality maps, drawings, and photographs from published excavation reports. The focus of the book is an area often neglected by archeologists in China, who are usually fixated on underground architecture – and the “treasures” therein – in isolation from above-ground facilities, thus de-contextualizing the tombs. Han period graves are very complex structures with often lavishly decorated underground chambers, and features above ground that include all sorts of funerary monuments, such as memorial halls and offering shrines, but also a wider range of facilities built within extensive cemetery gardens.