Double-handled jar with dish-shaped mouth

The most common shapes of hu during the Han period appear plain, or with grooved and incised decorations. The type of grooved convex-and-concave bands that adorn this piece developed in Jiangsu-Zhejiang from the late Western Han through the early Eastern Han. Grooved bands on hu from the middle of the Eastern Han dynasty onward became deeper, denser, and always covered the entire body from the shoulder to the lower portions. This vase demonstrates another type of hu, evoking the same tradition as (cat. no. 85).