Page 106 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

FIG. i. Jade blade incised images — the excavated examples among them
with goggle-eyed design;
length 18 (/Vs); Shandong found mostly in eastern-central China (Anhui and
Longshan culture; un- Hubei provinces) — stimulate ongoing scholarly
earthed in 1963 from debate as to their symbolic significance and
Liangchengzhen, Rizhao,
Shandong province. After possible relation to jade designs of the Liangzhu
Liu 1972, 57, fig. 2. culture of the east coast area near present-day
Shanghai.
Throughout the third millennium BCE, a vast
complex of late Neolithic cultures occupied eastern
and central China. The types of wheel-thrown pot-
tery found in this tomb appear to be distinctive to
the late phase of the Longshan culture in Shandong
province. Two openwork pieces (variously identified
as jade or kaolinite) unearthed in 1991 from a tomb
in Sunjiagang, Lixian, in northern Hunan (near the
Hubei border) suggest that the Shandong Long-
shan style of jade carving exemplified by this head
ornament may have extended farther south than
4
previously realized. Although technically analo-
gous to this openwork plaque, the Hunan pieces
incorporate clearly zoomorphic silhouettes, such as
Originally, the tomb's single occupant lay encased a bird or dragon. Whether these delicate openwork
in a wood coffin within an outer wood coffin. The carvings attest to a general diffusion of styles or to
plaque and pin lay beside the skeleton's head and a widespread distribution of styles originating from
neck. The coffin also contained a creamy white jade geographically concentrated workshops remains to
pin of a finely articulated, hooklike form beside the be discovered. EP
shoulder and three jade ritual weapons (one blade,
1 Excavated in 1989 (M 202); reported: Zhongguo Shandong
two axes) near the hips. Other grave goods included 587-594. See also Wenwu Jinghua 1992, pis. 60-61;
approximately 980 very thin turquoise plaques, Rawson 1996, 58-59 (no. 21); Tang 1998, 3: pis. 73-74.
bone implements, and black and gray earthenware 2 Liu 1972, 56 - 57, figs. 1-2.
3 Du 1994, 55-65.
tripods, jars, and handled cups. 4 Wenwu Jinghua 1993, pis. 45 - 46.
Whether this composite ornament was worn
in life or made exclusively for burial, whether in-
tended as a separate hairpin or as an insert in a
fabric headpiece, is unknown. Whereas the form
of the pin is so far unique, the plaque's attenuated,
hooked silhouette and vaguely masklike decoration
invite comparison with an intriguing variety of jade
images. These include goggle-eyed motifs incised
on a blade previously unearthed in Liangcheng-
zhen, Rizhao, in southeastern coastal Shandong
2
province (fig. i), as well as human and monsterlike
faces depicted on plaques and blades in several
3
Chinese and Western collections. Generally dated
to the third millennium BCE, these diverse facial

1O5 | DAWENKOU AND SHANDONG LONCSHAN CULTURES