The Camel's Load in Live and Death

A detailed study of the saddles and the loads of Chinese statuettes of camels that were put into tombs as mortuary furnishings, provides information on the goods traded along the Silk Routes over a period of approximately one thousand years. Besides an examination of the original breeding grounds and domestication of those beasts of burden, special attention is paid to silk, the main commodity, and its dissemination across Asia. Considerable changes in the depiction of the loads occurring over time, moreover, permit insight into the nature of Chinese religious beliefs and funerary practices between the Han and the Tang dynasties.