The tombs of Han nobility were often decorated with ceramic tiles bearing painted or impressed designs like this one, which probably served as a door lintel. This example was excavated during the 1940s from a site north of Lo-yang, the capital of Eastern Han.

The hunting scene in the upper central band represents an early attempt by the Chinese to create a pictorial landscape. The dragon frieze below it is, likewise, an early depiction of that mythological creature. The hunter shooting backwards (the so-called "Parthian shot") is a motif imported from the West. The geometric borders are actually textile patterns used in fabrics that were part of the silk trade then underway between China and the Roman empire.