Page 81 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

Excavation photograph of
Tomb 4, Mound i, Locality
2, at Niuheliang, Jianping,
Liaoning province;
Hongshan culture.

seems to have become somewhat more rooted. They also made use of metal-casting technology,
disclosed by a small copper ring unearthed from a tomb at Niuheliang (Tomb i, Mound 4,
Locality 2) and two small molds excavated from the foundation of a house at Xitai, Aohanqi,
Inner Mongolia in 1987. 14
Jade — normally contained exclusively in larger tombs — seems to have been a more pres-
tigious material than pottery; the latter is associated with the smaller tombs, or placed around
15
the tombs. In contrast to the jades of the Liangzhu culture (cats. 29-36), Hongshan jades
were more simply carved and without miniature motifs; while other cultures used the material
lavishly in their burials, the Hongshan were more frugal: the richest burial found thus far pro-
duced a mere twenty jades, and the most important burials — the so-called central tombs —
16
contained fewer than ten. The type of jade seems to have been a more important considera-
tion than its quantity.
One of the most significant discoveries associated with the Hongshan culture is the so-
called female spirit temple. Its identification as a temple is debated; some scholars identify it as
a repository. Twenty-two meters long from north to south, and nine meters at its widest, the
chambered subterranean structure was constructed of earth and thatch applied to a wood
framework. 17 The walls were painted with red and white geometric patterns, and the temple was
filled with unbaked clay sculptures depicting human figures and animals, as well as sacrificial
pottery objects; seven female figures — life-size, twice-life-size, and triple-life-size — arranged
18
by size and set off by dragons and birds of painted clay, have been recovered. Only one image

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