Institutions and Titlesminimal

Ordos bronzes

The animal-style bronze plaques, buckles and fittings of the northern frontier, from about the sixth century BC. They are the material record of the Xiongnu world and of what came before it.

Bronze plaque of a tiger devouring a ram, attributed to the Xiongnu, about the second century BCE.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 49.132, Rogers Fund, 1949, Open Access, public domain (CC0).

The Ordos bronzes are the cast belt plaques, buckles, knife handles and harness fittings of the northern Chinese frontier. They were made from about the sixth century BC onward and decorated in the animal style: beasts in combat, curled predators, stags with folded legs.

They are the chief material witness for the Xiongnu and for the peoples before them, and they come with a caution. The style stretches from the Danube to Manchuria. A shared style follows trade and fashion as readily as descent.