Seeking Immortality: Ancient Artifacts

Seeking Immortality: Ancient Artifacts features ceramics and other objects from China, Japan, and Korea meant to accompany the dead into the afterlife.

Across the world, the question of how to bury the deceased is an important issue. Concerns with an afterlife and immortality have resulted in troves of artifacts that verify some of these beliefs in other times and places.​

In Asia, deliberate mummification did not occur. The deceased were interred in tombs that reflected their status in this life and provided them with all that they might need in the next life, including protection from malevolent spirits. 

Some objects were used every day, whereas others were created specifically for burial. Often, pottery figures were substitutes for the burial of living servants and animals.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website