Figure of a mule with a sack across its back, China, Sui Dynasty (AD 589 - 618), earthenware, moulded and luted together, painted white, and with incised decoration, 18.6 x 22 x 10.9 cm (height x width x depth). Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust. LI1301.403. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford © The University of Sussex

The animal is standing four-square on a rectangular plinth, the head slightly inclined, the ears pricked. The features are faintly indicated, the neck with a sharp ridge to represent a docked mane, the body with slender legs and a long tail. A bulging sack has been slung over a straight saddlecloth, with incised lines to depict folds, and the strap of a harness is visible at the back, raised in slight relief. The grey pottery is covered with a white dressing.

A similarly laden figure of a horse, recovered from the Sui dynasty tomb of Li Jingxun in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, can be dated to the year AD 608. A somewhat earlier figure, preserved in the Datong City Institute of Archaeology, was excavated from the tomb of Song Shaozu which is datable to AD 477.