Sword-bearer lamp,

4th–2nd century BCE

This northern Chinese bronze lamp features a soldier holding a dish-shaped pan above his head, a long sword tucked into his belt sash. The soldier’s ears are pierced with plug ornaments, and his hair is partially covered with a headdress tied under his chin. Extensive technical analysis conducted on this object since it entered the Museum’s collections has revealed that the lamp was not cast in one piece but rather was created through a succession of pours, allowing the artist to use different metal alloy compositions to achieve a polychromatic effect. In China, lamps like this have been found in the tombs of late Bronze Age elites and may have been intended for use in funerary ceremonies or to light the deceased’s journey in the afterlife.