Page 149 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

39

39 Hardstone zhang ritual blade
7
Height 54 (2i!/4), maximum width 14.8 (5 /s)
Erlitou Culture, Period III (c. 1700-1600 BCE)
From the Erlitou site at Gedangtou, Yanshi,
Henan Province
The Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Beijing

40

Hardstone yue axe

l
Height 21 (8 'A), maximum width 23 (^ / 4)
Erlitou Culture, Period IV (c. 1600-1500 BCE)
From the Erlitou site at Gedangtou, Yanshi,
Henan Province

The Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Beijing

The shapes of hardstone objects recovered from
rich burials at Erlitou suggest specialized, perhaps
ceremonial or ritual, purposes. Blades or scepters
(zhang) are a form not established in the Neolithic
period and, like the dagger-axe (ge), may actually
1
depend on bronze prototypes. Such blades
would normally have been hafted at a right angle
to handles — in the case of this zhang, 2 perhaps
through the small perforation in its tang (although
its length and thinness would have rendered it too
fragile for any use except as an insignia or token
of rank); we have no physical evidence, however,
that such elaborate hardstone blades were ever
actually hafted and displayed. The stone zhang from
Erlitou was found in a grave, placed pointing north
on the chest of the deceased, and was paired with
a similar but smaller blade pointing in the opposite
direction. It seems unlikely that the blades were
attached to handles at the time of the burial.
Broad flat axes (yue), on the other hand, were
widespread in Neolithic cultures of the eastern
3
coast and the mouth of the Yangzi River. Two vari-
ants documented at Erlitou are more elaborate: one
shown here is a conventional flat axe with a circular
perforation, four segments to the cutting edge,
4
and six small "teeth" on each side. The other vari-
ant (called a qi or qibi) is a disk with a large central

148 BRONZ E AC E CHIN A