Tomb Tower

25 B.C.E.-220 C.E.

Architectural models made for the tomb provide evidence for the above-ground wooden architecture, which has not survived. The green lead glaze on the ceramic tower was only used on burial goods. This three-story tower has figures posed either at balustrade corners or peering out of the front windows. The eaves are made to resemble ceramic tile and are ornamented on the corners with four double-edged petals. The lower story has dougang brackets in the forms of dragons. The decorative circular tiles at the end of the roof eaves have the same pattern as tiles excavated in the ruins of palaces in both Han capitals, Chang’an (modern day Xi’an) of the Western Han and Luoyang of the Eastern Han, implying that this tomb model might replicate a real structure at the entryway to the Han capital.