No. EA-NIUHELIANG-001
Niuheliang white-jade board
China · Niuheliang Locality 5, Chaoyang, Liaoning; late Hongshan culture · East Asia
Function not recorded Candidate only
长条板状器
Source term: changtiao banzhuang qi (long board-shaped object)
长条 chángtiáo “long strip” + 板状 bǎnzhuàng “board-shaped” + 器 qì “object”: the excavators' plain descriptive name.
Millennia after the slender pierced jade blades of Chahai and Xinglongwa, this undecorated white-jade strip entered an upper cairn at Niuheliang. It extends their line into late Hongshan times: the older blade reduced to a pale, exact board in the same ceremonial landscape as clay goddesses, coiled jade dragons and paired round-and-square altars. Much later, Chinese artists personified that geometry as serpent-bodied Nüwa opening her compasses—but the jade itself carries no inscription or named deity.
Particulars
- Object
- A long, board-shaped strip of white jade from upper-layer cairn no. 1 at Niuheliang Locality 5. Length 9.4 cm; upper width 1.9 cm; lower width 2.5 cm; thickness 0.6 cm. Plain and unperforated.
- Function
- Catalogued as a long board-shaped jade object; original use unrecorded.
Source
Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Niuheliang: Hongshan Culture Site Excavation Report (1983-2003), 3 vols (Cultural Relics Press, 2012), object 373, N5SCZ1:2; UNESCO Tentative List 5804