Seal of the West Pacification General

The bronze seal is gilded and cast with a legend in seal script (zhuan shu) of the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). The characters follow the common order, arrayed in three vertical lines from the top right. The body of the seal is thick. The knob features classic details of the official seals made in the Northern dynasties: a tortoise rests on its four feet and raises its head beneath a prominent thick shell.   A title of a military official, "West Pacification General" first appeared in the late Easter Han period (25-220) and lasted into the fifth century. It was a third-rank title and was sometimes used to honor an official. Typically those with this title had high status and controlled a large number of troops.