knife BM-1973-0726.30

Period:Shang dynasty Production date:1200BC -1050BC (circa)
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Subjects:mammal
Dimensions:Length: 25.10 centimetres

Description:
Bronze ibex-headed knife.
IMG


Comments:Rawson 1987:Small curved knives with integral blades and handles were current among peoples living along the northern marches of Shang power. Knives decorated with ibex heads, as here, were only one of several major types used in the area. Curved knives were known in China from a very early date; a knife with a handle decorated by a row of oval depressions has been recovered from tomb M2 at Henan Yanshi Erlitou. In subsequent centuries such knives were more popular with peoples of the northern zone than with the Shang and Zhou inhabitants of Shaanxi and Henan. It is, therefore, possible that even in the Erlitou period such knives illustrate contact with northern peoples. Alternatively, the spread of Erligang culture may have taken such knives from central Henan to the periphery.Knives with ibex-head terminals are later. One has come from Fu Hao’s tomb. Such Anyang knives resemble the knife on the left: they share its delicate casting and realistic detail. Yje heavier casting of the second knife is reminiscent of that of knives from sites west and north of Henan. Rawson 1992:First and foremost, the Shang employed bronze for weapons, which are relatively easy to cast (being comparatively flat, they were cast in simple, two-parts moulds) and much more effective than their stone counterparts. They do not seem to have been prized primarily as ceremonial items. When they appear in burials, they represent the fighting power of their owners and were, presumably, the weapons they had used in daily life.Small curved knives with animal heads were popular on the northern and northwestern periphery of China. From time to time, they appear in Shang burials at Anyang. This small knife is an example of the form used in Shaanxi province; Anyang examples being more delicate.