Bronze mirror of the Qijia culture
Espejo de bronce de la cultura Qijia
- Date
- c. 2000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Qijiaping, Guanghe, Gansu, China
- Credited to
- Qijia culture
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A polished bronze disc with a central knob for a cord; Qijia examples are the oldest Chinese metal mirrors. They are the start of an unbroken tradition of decorated bronze mirrors.
Polished copper mirrors are earlier in Mesopotamia and Egypt (c. 3000 BC); the Chinese milestone is the oldest of an independent tradition, not the metal mirror in general.
What it led to
- a tradition of decorated bronze mirrors with cosmic motifs through the Han dynasty and after
- use of mirrors as ritual and funerary objects
- bronze mirrors spread to Korea and Japan