Period:Unknown Production date:3300BC-2200BC
Materials:jade
Technique:polished, pierced, incised,
Dimensions:Height: 4.80 centimetres Length: 8.60 centimetres
Description:
Axe fitting of opaque creamy white jade with fine grey veining and dark flecking polished to a good gloss.
IMG
![图片[1]-axe BM-2022-3034.71-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Unknown/Jades/524_.jpg)
Comments:See Keverne 1991. This fitting is of exceptionally fine shape and decoration. An extended narrow rectangle, curved in three dimensions, encloses the slot which fitted over the wooden half of the axe. But this is much more than a simple ornament for a weapon shaft; the essentially rectangular fitting is given the profile of an imaginary creature. Separating the undecorated portion that sat near the wooden shaft is a gracefully carved ridge, from which rises a flange, culminating in a series of forms delineated by openwork suggestive of strange creatures. From left to right these seem to be a creature with a large hooked ear; two crescent-=shaped hoops separated by a flange with a central hole; and then at the far end another head that seems to look back, with a hole that might be read as an eye. The whole of this section is covered with fine incised patterns of the type characteristic of the most complex of cong. Different sites have produced axe shaft ornaments ofr rather different degrees of workmanship. None are as elaborate or as well made as this one However, a piece with openwork designs has come from Jiangsu Wu xian Zhanglingshan. The openwork on the present piece and that on a fitting from Zhanglingshan are comparable with openwork combined with fine incised patterns on ceramics, as seen on a ding from Fuquanshan. In her comparison of the different jades in different categories of burials at Yaoshan, Jean James notes, as might be expected, the axes are typically found in burials that she suggests belonged to men. It is often the case that a tomb contains one jade axe, and several of stone. Tomb M20 at Fanshan had as many as twenty-four. See Rawson 1995, pp.139-140, cat.no.5.1. The flat “ship” shape fitting with a plain section curves gently outwards, extending upwards to a decorated section which has a right hand upper corner higher than the left lower corner. The upper section is pierced and very finely incised with angular curls and striated bands. There is a long channel in the base of the fitting. Neolithic – Liangzhu. Length 86mm.
Materials:jade
Technique:polished, pierced, incised,
Dimensions:Height: 4.80 centimetres Length: 8.60 centimetres
Description:
Axe fitting of opaque creamy white jade with fine grey veining and dark flecking polished to a good gloss.
IMG
Comments:See Keverne 1991. This fitting is of exceptionally fine shape and decoration. An extended narrow rectangle, curved in three dimensions, encloses the slot which fitted over the wooden half of the axe. But this is much more than a simple ornament for a weapon shaft; the essentially rectangular fitting is given the profile of an imaginary creature. Separating the undecorated portion that sat near the wooden shaft is a gracefully carved ridge, from which rises a flange, culminating in a series of forms delineated by openwork suggestive of strange creatures. From left to right these seem to be a creature with a large hooked ear; two crescent-=shaped hoops separated by a flange with a central hole; and then at the far end another head that seems to look back, with a hole that might be read as an eye. The whole of this section is covered with fine incised patterns of the type characteristic of the most complex of cong. Different sites have produced axe shaft ornaments ofr rather different degrees of workmanship. None are as elaborate or as well made as this one However, a piece with openwork designs has come from Jiangsu Wu xian Zhanglingshan. The openwork on the present piece and that on a fitting from Zhanglingshan are comparable with openwork combined with fine incised patterns on ceramics, as seen on a ding from Fuquanshan. In her comparison of the different jades in different categories of burials at Yaoshan, Jean James notes, as might be expected, the axes are typically found in burials that she suggests belonged to men. It is often the case that a tomb contains one jade axe, and several of stone. Tomb M20 at Fanshan had as many as twenty-four. See Rawson 1995, pp.139-140, cat.no.5.1. The flat “ship” shape fitting with a plain section curves gently outwards, extending upwards to a decorated section which has a right hand upper corner higher than the left lower corner. The upper section is pierced and very finely incised with angular curls and striated bands. There is a long channel in the base of the fitting. Neolithic – Liangzhu. Length 86mm.
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