大英博物馆藏汉代人像砖柱出土时间地点及功能探微

On The Burial Context and Function of the Human-Shaped Intaglio Pictorial Hollow Brick in The Collection of British Museum

英国大英博物馆收藏有一件中国汉代人像空心画像砖柱,以往未见有人对其进行深入论述。该馆研究人员认为砖柱发现于河南郑州,今通过对河南地区出土空心画像砖纹饰资料较为系统的梳理,排除了人像柱发现于郑州的可能性,提出该柱应出自郑州以南的周口、许昌一带。此柱年代应在西汉晚期至东汉早期,出土时间大致在清末、民国时期,最迟于20世纪40年代初流失英国。砖柱上的人像性质,应是存亡人之魂的"头"。人像柱有两方面功能,不仅具有承托墙砖的实用性,而且还起着镇墓辟邪、保墓安宁等思想观念方面的作用。

The piece of Chinese human-shaped intaglio pictorial hollow brick of the Han dynasty is judged by the research fellow of British Museum where it is housed to be unearthed in the city of Zhengzhou,Henan of China.However,the analysis of the thesis reaches a different conclusion that it should originate in Zhoukou,Xu Chang which lie to south of Zhengzhou,date back to the period from the late Western Han to the early Eastern Han era,be unearthed around the late Qing dynasty and after,then taken abroad to Britain in no later than 1940 s.The human-shaped design is the symbol of the deceased spirit.On the other hand,it works to support the wall and to ward off evil to ensure the dead to be rest in peace.