Page 91 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Jade Y-shaped object with animal mask
3
3
Height 12.1 (4 / 4), width 6 (2 /s), depth 0.3 (Vs)
Hongshan Culture, c. 4700-2920 BCE
From Fuxingdi, Fuxin, Liaoning Province
Liaoning Provincial Institute of Archaeology,
Shenyang

This Y-shaped jade, recovered in 1981 from the
Fuxingdi site during an archaeological survey, 1
resembles two jade objects in the collection of the
2
Liaoning Provincial Museum. There is at present
no counterpart available from controlled archaeo-
logical excavation. The most striking element of the
jade is the abstract animal or owl mask, dominated
by two large, round eyes at its upper end. Animal-
like mask motifs, consistently depicted facing front
and with enormous eyes, appear throughout prehis-
toric China, an indication that their meaning and
significance transcended specific cultures. A han-
dlelike extension, perforated at the bottom, projects
from the mask, and there are traces of wear at the
bottom edges — evidence that the object was origi-
nally tenoned to another object or into a stand.
A form of handlelike jades appears in Bronze
Age cultures such as the Erlitou and during the
3
Shang and Zhou periods; they are commonly
identified as ritual instruments. These later jades
may represent a formal synthesis of objects repre-
sented by this Y-shaped jade and the rod-shaped
fittings of the Liangzhu culture (cat. 34). XY

1 Published: Sun 1984,10.
2 Mou and Yun 1992, pis. 15-16; and Liaoning 1994, pi. 54.
3 Zhang Changshou 1994.

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