The purpose of these four bronze ornaments puzzled us for many years. We were not able to find information in our library or on the internet until we stumbled upon an article in ‘Orientations’ of November 1999, which included photos of set of 17 inlaid bronze chariot pieces from a tomb adjacent to that of general Huo Qubing (140 – 117BC). One of the photos showed two square items which were very similar to our four ornaments. And in one of our reference books we found an ornament consisting of two parts of which the top part was perhaps meant to guide the reins of a chariot (for a similar top see Quick Find 4845). The bottom part of this set however closely resembles one of our four ornaments. We now know that these four ornaments are chariot fittings but we have not yet discovered what their purpose was and where they were positioned. During excavations in 1980 adjacent to the mausoleum of the first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, two half-sized bronze chariots were discovered which revealed the position of many of the inlaid bronze ornaments which had been discovered thus far. However our four square box-shaped ornaments did not form part of the two half-sized chariots so further research is needed. Three of our ornaments are inlaid with silver and one in gold and silver. Only one set forms a pair. The other two entered our collection at different times. The largest of these mysterious objects measures 4.2 cm in height and the smallest 2.3 cm. They all date from the Warring States (475 – 221BC) to the Western Han period (206BC – 25AD).