Qualla: Northern Dynasties Tombs of Ci County

Northern Dynasties Tombs of Ci County: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Among the eight golden artifacts recovered from the tomb of Princess Ru Ru were two Byzantine coins. They had traveled thousands of miles along trade routes connecting Constantinople to the North China Plain, and they had been buried with a nomadic princess in sixth-century Hebei. The Northern Dynasties tombs of Ci County, discovered beginning in 1974 near Handan, contain some of the most revealing archaeological evidence of a period when China was fragmented, cosmopolitan, and artistically daring.

Northern Dynasties Tombs of Ci County: Unearthed in Waves

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The discoveries unfolded over decades. In 1974, archaeologists found the Tomb of Zhao, a local official. A year later, the Tomb of Northern Qi Yao June yielded 136 pottery figurines. Then in 1979 came the tomb that changed the scale of everything: the burial chamber of Princess R...

Northern Dynasties Tombs of Ci County: Clay Armies and Nomadic Princesses

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The figurines from Princess Ru Ru's tomb serve as a political text in clay. Ru Ru was of the Rouran people, a powerful nomadic confederation from the northern steppes. Her marriage into the Eastern Wei court was a diplomatic act binding two cultures. The funeral objects reflect b...

Northern Dynasties Tombs of Ci County: Small Scale, Fierce Detail

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Most of the figurines are modest in size -- the smallest stand just two inches tall, while larger examples reach about a foot in height. The exception is a figure from Emperor Wenxuan's tomb that towers at 1.6 meters, an extraordinary scale for burial pottery of this period. The ...