Head of a Raptor

Sanxingdui Museum

The museum label identifies this bird as an osprey ("fish hawk"). It is not at all clear what that sea bird is doing in the middle of land-locked Sichuan, unless he flew a thousand miles up the Yangzi, all the way from the Pacific Ocean (map). The oversize (40cm, 16in tall) bronze head would originally have been fixed on the end of a pole. The museum label suggests this was a totem object of the Shu people, and mentions in particular one Shu king (date not given) who was named Yufu (fish-hawk). Compare: a modern totem of theTlingit People from the Pacific Northwest.