3. Meeting Nature’s Challenge: Jade in Prehistoric China (c. 4000–2000 BCE)

So, Jenny F.

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3. Meeting Nature’s Challenge: Jade in Prehistoric China (c. 4000–2000 BCE)

Jenny F. So

Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums

Neolithic inhabitants of China were shaping small personal ornaments and tools in nephrite, agate, and other hard stones no later than the sixth and fifth millennia (6000–4000 BCE). By the fourth millennium (C. 4000–3000 BCE), nephrite production had emerged in the...

Author

Jenny F. So

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.49-99

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00041.007

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18067

Chapter subject tags:Jade art objects--China--HistoryJade--ChinaJade carving, PrehistoricSculpture, PrehistoricFuneral rites and ceremonies--China--HistoryExcavations (Archaeology)--China

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List of illustrations

Baked-mud pregnant female figure, Kazuo Dongshanzui, Liaoning province by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 4000–3000 BC
Drawing of stone mounds at Site II, Jianping Niuheliang, Liaoning province by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 4000–2700 BC
Stone-cist burial showing seven jades in situ, Site V, M1, Jianping Niuheliang, Liaoning province by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
Unknown
Jade tortoise shell from Site II, Sector 1, M21, Jianping Niuheliang, Liaoning province by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 4000–2700 BC
Burial with jade and stone artifacts in situ by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
Unknown
Jade disk with multidirectional curved slice marks by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3000–2000 BC
Jade bracelet with mask image by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 4000–2700 BC
View of graves on top of Yaoshan, 1987 by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
Unknown
Jade cong by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3000–2000 BC
Jade cong, detail of man-animal motif by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3000–2000 BC
Drawing showing jade cong in situ, Wujin Sidun M3, Jiangsu province by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
Unknown
Fragment of a jade knife by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2000–1000 BC
Drawing of jade blades in sacrificial pit by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2300–1700 BC
Multiple jade bracelets in situ on arm of a buried individual by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 1700 BC
Drawing of a jade blade fragment showing kneeling figure with forked blade by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 1700 BC
Curved cuff-like ornament with grooved design by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 1700–1500 BC
Jade headdress ornament (?) by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 4000–2000 BC
Low cylindrical bracelet with eight animal-mask motifs by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3300–2500 BC
Jade bracelet, reportedly from Henan province, Neolithic Liangzhu culture. by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3300–2500 BC
Low cylindrical jade bracelet with concave wall, southeast Neolithic by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3000–2000 BC
Squared cylinder (cong) with human-face motifs on 5.5 registers, Yangzi delta–Lake Tai region, Liangzhu context by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2500–2200 BC
Detail of half-register at top: Squared cylinder (cong) with human-face motifs on 5.5 registers, Yangzi delta–Lake Tai region, Liangzhu context by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2500–2200 BC
Squared cylinder (cong) with human-face motifs on 5.5 registers, detail by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2500–2200 BC
Jade bi-disk, southeast Neolithic by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 4000–2000 BC
Jade axe-blade, southeast Neolithic by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3000–2000 BC
Jade ornamental combtop by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3000–2000 BC
Slice of a jade congcylinder by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2300–1700 BC
Staff finial (?) by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 6500–5500 BC
Stone staff finial (damaged) by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 6000–5000 BC
Cicada ornament by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2200–2000 BC
Curved tiger ornament by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2200–2000 BC
Jade columnar eagleshaped finial or hair ornament, Shijiahe communities, middle Yangzi valley by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2300–1700 BC
Jade “demonic” face ornament, Shijiahe communities, middle Yangzi valley by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2300–1700 BC
Disk with ancient repair by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2500–1800 BC
Trapezoidal knife with three holes by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
2500–1800 BC
Trapezoidal knife with three holes by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
2500–1800 BC
Photograph and drawing of repaired jade disk, Minhe Lajia, Qinghai province by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2300–1700 BC
Jade knife-blade, damaged by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2300–1700 BC
Forked blade (zhang) by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2500–1900 BC
Forked blade (zhang) by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2500–1900 BC
Tapering tablet (gui) by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2500–1900 BC
Jade tablet with human image by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3000–2000 BC
Arm or wrist ornament with notched and serrated profiles by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2500–1900 BC
Arm or wrist ornament with notched and serrated profiles by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 2500–1900 BC
Jade arm or wrist ornament constructed from three arc-segments by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3000–2000 BC
Jade notched arm ornament by Unknown
By John Carlson
on Mar 01
c. 3000–2000 BC

3. Meeting Nature’s Challenge: Jade in Prehistoric China (c. 4000–2000 BCE)

Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums

Jenny F. So

Publisher: Harvard Art Museums

Print publication date: Mar, 2019

Subject areasArt History and TheoryConservation and Museum StudiesAncientAsian and Southeast Asian

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- Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Note to Reader
- 1. Jade in Nature
- 2. Jade in the Lab
- 3. Meeting Nature’s Challenge: Jade in Prehistoric China (c. 4000–2000 BCE)
- 4. Arrival of a New Competitor: Jade in an Age of Bronze (c. 2000–1200 BCE)
- 5. Legacies and Interventions: Jade in the Early Historical Periods (c. 1200–800 BCE)
- 6. Symbol of Moral Virtue: Jade in Times of Crisis (c. 800–300 BCE)
- 7. Agents for Immortality: Jade in Early Imperial China (c. 300–1 BCE)
- 8. Epilogue: Immortal Jades
- Chronology
- Chinese Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index