Bronze lei wine vessel with elephant head-shaped handles and dragon design

This photograph was taken at the Sichuan Museum.

This bronze artifact was unearthed in 1959 from a hoard at Zhuwajie, Mengyang Town, Peng County (now Pengzhou City), Sichuan Province. Dating to the early Western Zhou Dynasty, it is one of China's first group of cultural relics prohibited from being exhibited abroad. As a "treasure of the museum" at the Sichuan Museum, it represents the pinnacle of ancient Shu bronze casting technology and is a rare precious object for studying the cultural exchange between the ancient Shu civilization and the Central Plains.