Emulation and retention: Horses and chariots at the burial site of Majiayuan in northwestern China

Abstract

Animals often acquire ritual and symbolic significance when incorporated into mortuary contexts in human society. In Bronze Age China, horses and chariots were frequently interred together as teams in separate pits associated with burials, forming integral components of the mortuary rituals among elites in settled states. Although examples are scarce, the mortuary use of horses and chariots was also observed in pastoral societies during the first millennium BCE. The examination of complete horse skeletons from an elite tomb at Majiayuan, a large burial site in northwestern China dating back to the 4th-3rd centuries BCE, indicates the integration of four adult, male, tall horses with an elaborate wooden chariot. Alongside the combination of four horse skulls and one chariot, which likely represents an alternative form of the team, these practices were exclusive to a select group of high-ranking individuals at Majiayuan. The selection, arrangement, and interment of horses and chariots followed the examples of four-horse-one-chariot sets in contemporary settled states, while also retaining pastoral society's practice of interring animal skulls and hooves in burials. This blend of emulation from settled states and retention of pastoral mortuary traditions reflects part of a ritualized set of mortuary practices at Majiayuan, highlighting the social importance attributed to horses in pastoral societies and their symbolic connections to centers of political power.