Judith A.

Lerner, Aspects of Assimilation: The Funerary Practices and Furnishings of Central Asians
in China (Sino-Platonic Papers, 168, December, 2005)

ERRATUM AND ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY AND OBSERVATIONS

Although the use of the singular for a post-printing discovery may be unduly optimistic, I
take this opportunity to direct the reader to a particular error in Table 2, Occurrence of
Specific Scenes and Motifs. The dates given for the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi
dynasties, respectively, have been reversed; they should, of course, be Northern Zhou
(557-581) and Northern Qi (550-577).

Page 3, continuation of footnote 2: Citing reports in the files of the Freer Gallery,
Washington, D.C., I noted the possibility that the base that has been linked to the panels
and gateposts of the funerary bed attributed to Anyang, comes from Cave 4 at
Xiangtangshan, and observed that, if this was the case, it is hard to reconcile the style and
iconography of the panels and gateposts with a royal Buddhist burial. Etsuko Kageyama
has drawn my attention to the reason for the Xiantangshan attribution in the volume,
Museum fr Ostasiatische Kunst der Stadt Kln, Buddhistische Plastik aus China und
Japan, ed. Gunhild Gabbert (Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1972), 278-85 (85. Zwei
Reliefplatten in Form von Torbauten) and 414-17 (Anhang 1: Die Mittlere Hhle von
Nord-Hsiang-tang-shan und ihre mutmassliche Verbingdung zu den Klner Torreliefs).
Early reports of the contents of this and other caves in the complex seem to confirm the
Xiangtangshan attributionat least for the Freer base (see also Jiang Boqin, The
Zoroastrian Art of the Sogdians in China. V. A Study of the Pictorial Program on the
Anyang Mortuary Bed, China Art and Archaeology Digest, IV [December, 2000]: 6061). The use of the caves for royal burials is under study and has been confirmed by
current archaeological investigation at Xiangtangshan, as recently presented in the
Conference on Xiangtangshan and Northern Qi Art, Museum of the University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, May 2, 2006, specifically in the paper by Li Chongfeng, On
Gaohuans Tomb Cave at Xiangtangshan.

Judith A. Lerner, Aspects of Assimilation: The Funerary Practices and Furnishings of Central Asians
in China (Sino-Platonic Papers, 168, December, 2005)

Page 5, footnote 6: Regarding the DNA of Yu Hong, the recent publication of the tomb
and sarcophagus reports that his was of European type while that of his wife was both
European and Asian: Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Taiyuan Municipal
Institute of Archaeology and the Bureau of Cultural Relics and Tourism, Jinyuan District,
Taiyuan, The Sui Dynasty Tomb of Yu Hong in Taiyuan (Beijing: Cultural Relics
Publishing House, 2005), 207. This publication was not available to me when I was
writing Aspects of Assimilation. I am grateful to Etsuko Kagayama for bringing the
DNA section to my attention.

Pages 26-7: Etsuko Kageyama has further observed in an email to me that on the panel
depicting An Qie seated in a yurt with a Turk (Shaanxi Provincial Institute of
Archaeology, An Jia Tomb, pl. 57, and noted on p. 29, note 73) the two men seem to be
drinking from a rhyton. I agree that they are sharing a vessel and appreciate the acuity of
her observation. However, I would identify the object that An Qie hands to the Turk a
drinking horn. Although the Iranian rhyton is also horn-shaped, its liquid contents are
consumed from the pierced narrow end (often terminating in an animals head) while
held aloft so that the liquid pours into the drinkers mouth (see the Kooros bed, Pl. 6d). In
contrast, An Qie hands the Turk the horn by means of its tapered narrow end, implying
that it is open only at the wider top, and therefore is more like a cup.

Similar vesselsthat is, drinking hornsheld in this position are found on several gold
plaques from Scythian burials in the Crimea, dating to the latter half of the first
millennium BCE. On these plaques, two Scythians drink from the same horn, which
recalls the oath-taking ceremony described by Herodotus (IV.70) (The Metropolitan
Museum of Art and The Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, From the Lands of the
Scythians. Ancient Treasures from the Museums of the U.S.S.R. 3000 B.C. 100 B.C.
[New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975], 110, nos. 72 and 76; pl. 14). Is it
possible that An Qies meeting with the Turk perpetuates this ancient Iranian/IndoEuropean ritual to mark the conclusion of their negotiations? I am grateful to Kageyama
for opening this line of inquiry.