Camel

This sculpture depicts a camel carrying a large load of goods that rests on an elliptical cushion with pleated edges placed between the animal’s two bent humps. Twohumped camels were favored for packing heavy loads over the difficult desert terrain that made up much of the Silk Road, and models of camels were popular funerary ceramics for Tang-dynasty aristocrats and officials. Sancai sculptures of this size are very rare because most of them were damaged when the tombs collapsed.