Appearance of Camel-themed artistic works in China and the Early Silk Road

On the basis of extensive categories, and temporal and spatial distribution of the camel-themed cultural relics in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (771-256BC), Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) of China, it is suggested that their artistic style had obvious chronological and regional characteristics. It is believed that the appearance and development of the camel-themed cultural relics in Central China was deeply influenced by the people in the western and northern part of China, showing a relatively active interaction between agriculture and animal husbandry. The realistic artistic style of the gold and silver camel figures, recently discovered from QLCM1 within the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum complex, provide a rare opportunity to investigate the early camel-themed cultural relics in China. The patching technology employed on the silver camel also can be traced to the artworks of Central and West Asia, and beyond. The gold and silver camels were possible imported, or produced locally under the influence of Western art, demonstrating the early Silk Road that had been active before Zhang Qian's trip to the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty.