Research On Owl-shaped Ornament In Bronzes

The zenith of bronze culture appeared in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The bronze ornamentation is the carrier of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, which also represents the Shang and Zhou dynasties’culture, economy, art, religion, folklore and so on. Owl-shaped decoration is a unique bronze ornamentation, whose original prototype is the Strigiformes in biology, and appeared roughly in the late Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou’s med-term. Senior scholars have carried out lots of researches about owl-shaped ornamentation in their naming, introductions and example ornamentation. But the owl-shaped decoration still lacks independent, integral and further study that based on the abundant data.The owl-shaped ornament in bronzes is from the realistic owls, and our ancestors gave some special meaning to the owls that prompted the owl-shaped ornament’s developments. We can analyze the owls’characteristics to decide which one is the bronze owl-shaped ornament, which also can help us understand the meaning of owl-shaped decoration easily.Among all kinds of the bronze owl-shaped ornament, there are many differences in form and ages. This paper is based on the relevant bronzes data that I collected, and classified the bronze owl-shaped ornament according to the typology theory. I considered the discovery of the bronzes situations, analyzed the distribution type about time and region. Besides, I have a research about the owl-shaped decoration and other collocational ornament that occurred in Shang and Zhou Dynasties’bronzes.The Shang and Zhou Dynasties bronze owl-shaped ornament is a carrier to express owl worship. The owl worship involves two aspects about religion and military. I have referred to historical documents, archaeological materials. The paper mainly analyzes Shang and Zhou Dynasties owl worship in religion and military aspects with the reference of relevant documents, archaeological data, combined with many folklore, religious studies.