Kneeling figure, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BCE), 4th century BCE. Bronze, 28.58 × 15.24 × 15.24 cm, 3.3 kg. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Bequest of Alfred F. Pillsbury, 50.46.114.

Excavated near Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BCE), this small sculpture of a kneeling man holding a tube-like vessel in his extended hands may have served as a torch bearer in a tomb. The figure is clothed in a close-fitting garment that wraps from left to right and is belted with a narrow band. The head covering, rather like an open helmet, is broad at the back and rises to a peaked top before descending in a narrow tongue-shaped band at the forehead.