[
    {
        "id": 205861,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1969",
        "page_number": 167,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n161 \n\nA PAIR OF POTTERY COVERED JARS FOUND AT SHEK PIK, LANTAU ISLAND \n\nThe Shek Pik area in the south-western corner of Lantau Island has yielded archaeological finds of more varied interest than any other area in Hong Kong. Before the construction of the reservoir in the valley (1958-62), it was mainly known by the neolithic sites on the raised beach which W. Schofield excavated in the thirties. During and since the building of the reservoir various archaeological finds of comparatively recent periods have been made. The latest of these finds is a pair of earthenware jars with identical blue and white porcelain bowls as covers. They were discovered in February 1968 and February 1969 by James Hayes who had reported all post-war archaeological finds at Shek Pik†. Both pairs of jar and bowl were broken when discovered and the first pair has now been restored by the City Museum and Art Gallery (see Plates 19 and 20).\n\nThese jars and bowls were located on a sloping hillside west of the former village of Shek Pik Wai (abandoned before the War for sites a few hundred yards lower down the valley). The area had been scoured by bulldozers for 'fill' for the dam and the jars were found in an exposed bank. This was, in fact, the site of the earlier discoveries reported by Hayes. Though located less than a foot away from each other and each about two feet from the surface, the pots were discovered singly as progressive eroding of the bank by rain brought them to light. Mr. WAN On (溫安) of Pui O, South Lantau was with Mr. Hayes on both occasions.\n\nThe porcelain bowls are the first known pieces of Ming blue and white porcelain reported in Hong Kong, at any rate since the War, although they are a type of trade porcelain which is commonly found in the Philippines and in Indonesia. The bowls have fairly straight slanting sides and high foot-rims. They are decorated on the outside with vertical fern leaves (sometimes identified as plantain leaves) with wavy edges and with a band of floral design round the mouth rim. On the inside they are decorated with a double ring near the mouth and with a lotus flower within a circle in the centre. The lotus flower (Sanskrit padma) is one of the \"eight glorious emblems\" in Buddhist art\n\n† See reference to this article at p. 73 of this issue. Ed.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210531,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1985",
        "page_number": 138,
        "title": "RAS-1985",
        "content_text": "119\n\nTHE CULT OF THE DEAD IN ANCIENT ROME AND MODERN CHINA:\n\nA COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS\n\nJOHN KARL EVANS*\n\nIntroduction\n\nAmong the thousands of Latin sepulchral inscriptions so far discovered in Rome and its environs, there are many which strike a profoundly pessimistic note. A certain Scaterius Celer, for example, directed that the following four lines be inscribed on his gravestone:\n\nWe are nothing, we who were mortals. Consider, reader, how quickly\n\nWe return\n\nTo nothing from nothing.'\n\nSuch nihilism was sufficiently widespread that Roman stone-cutters eventually reduced it to a series of simple abbreviations. In the Museo Civico at Padua, one may still read a Latin epitaph whose last line is N.F.F.N.S.N.C, which is short for non fui, fui, non sum, non curo “I did not exist, I did, I do not exist, I don't care\" (CIL 5.2893 = ILS 8164). This particular thought occurs, however, not only in Italy and among the Romanized inhabitants of the west,' but in Greek inscriptions as well. Thus the physician Nicomedes, who was also buried at Rome, has left us a lengthy tomb inscription, which closes with this expression:\n\n2\n\nHaving saved many with drugs that gave release from pain,\n\nNow in death his own body is free of suffering.\n\nI, Nicomedes, am in good spirits.\n\nI was not, and I became; I am not, and nothing hurts me.4\n\n* John Karl Evans is Professor for Roman History at the University of Minnesota. His particular interests are Roman social and family history, which he approaches within a comparative anthropological framework.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x",
        "rank": 0
    }
]