Neolithic Period, Liangzhu Culture (ca. 3400 – ca. 2200 BCE)
Length: 9.3 cm
Provenance:
A Distinguished Chinese Collector Important North American Collector
Exhibited & Published:
Weisbrod 30 Years, An Anniversary Exhibition, Spring 2002, Weisbrod Chinese Art, Ltd., New York, no. 1M.
Round in cross-section, this ornament tapers to a point at one end. A long tab on the other end, decorated with an incised concave band, is indented from the body of the ornament and tapers to a blunt end. A deep groove encircles the widest part of the body. The ornament is carved from pale grey-green jade, with darker grey inclusions, that has almost completely altered.
A similar ornament without decorative bands is now in the Jiangsu Province Cultural and Archaeological Research Bureau, see A Compendium of Chinese Jades , vol. 1, number 245. A similar, but undecorated awl-shaped ornament is shown as part of a necklace reconstruction in Yang Boda , number 48.
Reportedly discovered in Zhejiang Province.