Page 10 - JJ Lally Ancient Chinese Jades, 1988

1. A Large N eolithic S tone Ceremonial Axe ( Fu )
circa 4th/3rd Millennium B.C.
the wide flat blade with an aperture drilled from both sides and centered below the unevenly
finished butt end, the sides slightly tapered, the cutting edge blunt, the dark gray stone with a
widely dispersed network of pale root marks on one side of the polished surface.
Length 7½ inches (19 cm)

Ex J.J. Lally & Co., 1994 catalogue no. 8
A Liangzhu culture provenance is likely for this piece, but an alternative culture cannot be ruled out. Compare the stone
axes from the Liangzhu culture, excavated from Fuquanshan, Qingpu, Zhejiang province, illustrated by Huang, Gems of
Liangzhu Culture, Hong Kong, 1992, p. 64, no. 9 and p. 66, no. 10. Compare also the stone axe of similar tapered form with
slightly flared straight sides and similarly drilled with a large aperture from both sides, excavated from the Xuejiagang
Neolithic site at Qianshan, Anhui province, dating to approximately 3000 B.C., illustrated by line drawing in the site report,
Kaogu xuebao, 1982, No. 3, p. 309, fig. 24:2.
The arduous labor devoted to production of such an impractical thin and unsharpened blade clearly indicates that this axe
was not meant for use as a tool, rather it was produced for ritual use by the ruling elite.

อͩኜࣛ˾cͩ״cڗ 19᩶Ϸc
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