cooling glass was then wrapped with extra glass fi bers. Th e
glass itself was made by heating silica-bearing sand and soda
ash, which created a clear vitreous substance as it cooled.
Glassmakers decorated their wares with designs gently
carved into the cooling material. Th ey used familiar colors
that imitated semiprecious stones: copper and cobalt dyes
produced blue colors, manganese produced purple, and lead
and antimony produced yellow. Glassblowing techniques
that originated in Syria in the fi rst century b.c.e., under the
Romans, quickly spread to Mesopotamia and throughout
the empire.
Glassmakers and all other skilled artisans held a respect-
ed place in Mesopota mia n societ ies. Th e Code of Hammurabi
recognizes the class of amelu—citizens of full rights and high
status, in which were included royalty, government offi cials,
landowners, aristocrats, and craft smen. Craft workers com-
monly followed the profession of their ancestors, but they
were also developed through a system of apprenticeship. Boys
were oft en adopted into the family of an artisan and given a
full course of training, aft er which they were free to establish
themselves as independent professionals.
To the east, the wealthy Persian Empire founded in the
sixth century b.c.e. fostered the work of skilled artisans
in stone, metal, and ceramic. Monumental sculpture and
painted friezes decorated the mammoth palaces of Perse-
polis and Susa, the seat of power of the Persian rulers. Th e
wealthy of ancient Persia decorated their bodies with heavy
gold and silver jewelry. Th eir homes and palaces held furni-
ture craft ed from cedar imported from Lebanon and Ana-
tolia. Potters used great creativity in fashioning drinking
cups, bowls, and jars in imaginative shapes, many inspired
by mythological creatures and tales. Persian craft smen
made use of a variety of abstract shapes as well, beginning
a tradition in the visual arts that would survive the fall of
the empire and continue in the Parthian, Sassanian, and Is-
lamic realms of later times.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Along the Indus River metal casting emerged early in the
Harappan culture, perhaps in about 2300 b.c.e. Harappans
made household goods, such as bowls and cups, from bronze
and copper, and they made small depictions of animals, some
of which may have been religious symbols and others toys.
Harappans had a large inventory of symbolic graphs whose
meaning remains unknown, which they used on seals carved
in steatite (also known as “soapstone”), probably in imitation
of Near Eastern seals. Harappan seals included portraits of
gods and realistic portrayals of animals. Two famous Harap-
pan seals are the image of a rhinoceros in the National Muse-
um of Pakistan and the image of a Brahman bull in the British
Museum. Th e rhinoceros stands fi rmly on four legs and has
an elaborately carved hide; its proportions are lifelike. Th e
Brahman bull is also well proportioned and stands fi rmly; it
The Chinese Shang Dynasty bronze casters made
molds out of several parts that fi t together like pieces
of a puzzle. Molds were made of clay. A mold had a
base on which the other pieces were set. The base
had openings for molten bronze to be poured in and
for hot gases to escape. The base would actually be-
come the top when the metal was poured in, but it
contained the part of the mold that would form the
base of the object.
The central core of the mold was a solid piece.
It provided the shape for the inside of whatever was
being cast. In the case of an eating vessel, it might be
shallow for a serving plate or deep for a soup bowl.
It could be carved with symbols or depictions of ani-
mals or people. It was the core that allowed a Shang
bronze caster to produce an object as completely
decorated on the inside as the outside.
There might be several outer parts to the mold,
but there had to be at least two so that the mold
could be opened to release the bronze object without
breaking the mold. The outer pieces were shaped to
fi t around the core while allowing space for the mol-
ten metal to fl ow in. The interiors of the outer parts
of the mold would be carved with the images that
were to be displayed on the outside of the bronze ob-
ject. It is possible that no Shang bronze was without
carved decorations.
The pieces would be put together using notches
as guides so that the outer ones did not touch the
core. After the metal cooled, the pieces could be
pulled apart. The seams that formed where the outer
pieces joined together would be fi led or sanded to
match the surface—except, in the late Shang, some
bronzes were cast using this method that had no
seams to fi le, sand, or polish. How these seamless
bronzes were produced remains a mystery.THE MYSTERY OF SHANG BRONZE
CASTINGSis an image common among Harappan remains and is most
likely representative of the status Brahman bulls would have
later in Hindu culture.
Th e Harappan civilization began to decline by about
1900 b.c.e. and was overrun by northern nomads in about
1500 b.c.e. Th ese nomads, called Aryans, began the Vedic
culture in India, a culture with a caste social system. Th e Su-
dra caste included the craft speople, who were supposed to
serve the higher castes. Th e craft s of carpentry, stonemason-
ry, metalworking, basket weaving, and garland making were
usually hereditary. Over time large extended families werecrafts: Asia and the Pacific 289