These architectural models show us the necessities of daily life in a Han dynasty village or on a large estate. The multi-storied structures in the back are watchtowers, complete with soldiers armed with crossbows. Farmers stored grain in the tall, cylindrical silo to the right, and they ground it in the mill, the second building from the left, closer to the front. Behind the mill and to the left is a well, and farthest to the left is a crowded pen of goats. You can see a pigpen on the lower deck near the right.

Above several of the animal pens is a small structure—in the pigpen, a simple platform with a hole, and in the goat pen, a small building. These are outhouses, placed with the animals in order to recycle waste efficiently. 

These models were intended for the afterlife. Early Chinese cultures viewed the afterlife as a dwelling place of deities and ancestral spirits. During the Han Dynasty, the changes resulting from newly developing humanist sentiments extended even to life after death. People began to regard the afterlife as an extension of this world, a place where they would need to care for even the most basic worldly needs.