Page 132 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Jade zhuo bracelet The jade is creamy white, but scattered spots
and fine streaks of olive color suggest that the
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Height 2.6 (i), exterior diam. 7.4 (2 A), stone was originally translucent green. The form of
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interior diam. 6 (2 /s)
this bracelet, as well as the symmetrical arrange-
Liangzhu Culture, c. 3200-2000 BCE
ment of the monster faces at the four corners, ex-
From Yaoshan, Yuhang, Zhejiang Province
hibits a close affinity with that of the cong, which
Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Archaeology, indeed may have been its inspiration.
Hangzhou Bracelets number among the earliest Liangzhu
jade forms; their antecedents can be traced to the
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This thick-walled bracelet is beautifully formed, very beginnings of eastern-coast jadework during
elaborately decorated, and polished to a soft luster. the fifth millennium BCE. Examples from Liangzhu
Four monsterlike faces carved in high relief encircle display a rich variety of shapes and designs —
its exterior, each featuring a pair of round eyes slim, thick, or convex walls and surface patterns
with bulging pupils and a wide, straight mouth with engraved in intaglio or raised in relief. Decorative
neatly aligned teeth. Thin, sunken lines define the motifs primarily comprise face images and scroll-
arched eyebrows, round nose, and prominent jaws. work, but twisted-rope patterns occasionally appear.
Unlike the awesome expression of most Liangzhu A bracelet found on the arm of the deceased in a
monsters, these faces appear rather playful. Fuquanshan tomb in Shanghai consists of two half-

131 L I A N G Z H U C U L T U R E