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Celadons, spoons, seals, and bronze mirrors were the most common burial objects in tombs during the Goryeo period (918–1392). Furnishing tombs with an elaborate assemblage of objects was believed to honor and comfort the newly dead. Generally, Goryeo tombs were left untouched until the late 19th century. During the colonial period (1910–45), however, Japanese archaeologists hastily excavated the tombs located in Kaeseong, the former capital of the Goryeo period. Scholars recently have proposed that toward the end of the 14th century, Koreans enjoyed meat-based soups more than any other dishes, explaining why many more spoons than chopsticks were buried in tombs.
Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
silver bronze
Overall: 31 cm (12 3/16 in.)
Did you know...
Scholars have proposed that toward the end of the 14th century, Koreans enjoyed meat-based soups more than any other dishes, explaining why spoons became common household items as well as burial goods.
General Income Fund
One side of the bead bears a detailed carving of an owl, a hieroglyph that has the same sound value as the English "m." The other side shows a victorious pharaoh raising his weapon to dispatch a cowering enemy. The plaque was probably created in the 18th or 19th Dynasty.
Egyptian
H: 3/8 x W: 1/2 (0.99 x 1.33 x 0.04 cm)
Ring inner Diam: 9/16 in. (1.35 cm)
Outer Diam: 3/4 in. (1.84 cm)
medium: carved yellow jasper and gold
culture: Egyptian
dynasty: 18th-19th Dynasty
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
8 7/16 x 6 15/16 in. (21.5 x 17.6 cm)
medium: watercolor with graphite underdrawing on cream, moderately thick, moderately textured wove paper
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
lacquer on wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, applied carved metal, and glazed ceramic
Overall: 3.5 x 21.6 x 16 cm (1 3/8 x 8 1/2 x 6 5/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Collection
Each of the four gospels in this book opens on a page with brilliantly illuminated borders depicting the author of the text as well as birds—principally peacocks, symbols of the immortality of the soul—and fountains, representing the fountain of life and the salvation of the soul. This volume consists of 428 leaves with texts in Greek. Its level of sophistication suggests that it was probably written and decorated in a monastery in Constantinople.
Byzantium, Constantinople
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; leather binding
Sheet: 28 x 23 cm (11 x 9 1/16 in.)
Did you know...
Gospel books were carried in procession through Byzantine churches.
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Louis Lang
American, Bad Waldsee, Germany 1814–1893 New York
27 1/4 x 34 1/4 in. (69.2 x 87 cm)
medium: Oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 77.3.4 1877
Bequest of Sarah Ann Ludlum, 1877