Pendant in form of a mask

• (Kate Theimer, December 13, 1995) As of this date, this entry contains the most complete information regarding this object. All information from the object file has been entered. Original correspondence relating to this object may be found in the object file in the Office of the Registrar. All comments after this one will be in chronological order.

  1. (Jenny F. So, December 18, 1991) The ornamental pendant, roughly rectangular in shape, appears to be a product of the late Neolithic, so called Hongshan 紅山 culture located in present day Liaoning 遼寧 province, dating from ca. 3000--2500 BCE.

  The straight top edge of the pendant suggests that it might have been the result of grinding and re working (perhaps to even out damage in that area). It is conceivable therefore that the original shape of the top is different from the way it appears now. It shows sharp angles and straight edges that are not characteristic of the workmanship for this pendant, which is dominated by gradually tapering edges and subtly rounded planes.

  2. (Jenny F. So, May 9, 1993) Date changed from "ca. 3000 BCE--2500 BCE" to "ca. 3500 BCE--3000 BCE." Exhibition Ancient Chinese Art label text; moved to label field.

  3. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, June 17, 2008) Added Previous Owner: Ex collection Colonel Lewis F. Acker. Changed Object name from "plaque" to "jewelry;" changed title from "Ornamental plaque" to "Toothed pendant." Added designation "nephrite" to Medium as per Wen Guang 聞廣, as determined by infrared spectroscopy in June 1997. Added "Northeast China" to Geography: Origin. Added Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database.

  4. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 1, 2008) Jewelry added as secondary classification.

  5. (Rachel Anderson per Jeffrey Smith, October 12, 2010) Transfer of remark from Provenance Field:

  "1. (From a letter by Erwin Harris to Jenny F. So, December 9, 1991) The Harris Hongshan 紅山 jade first came to knowledge in 1945 or 1946 in a personal collection of curious and attractive old jade put together by U.S. Army Colonel Lewis F. Acker. Colonel Acker was an important U.S. Liaison Officer attached to the Nationalist China Army.

  A photograph included in Colonel Acker's own journal records, some of which are dated '1945' and '1946 Shanghai 上海,' shows the Hongshan 紅山 jade piece very clearly included in his 'jade collection.' The jades evidently all left China with Colonel Acker at the conclusion of the war in 1945--46.

  The piece makes its appearance again 20 years later in lots of ancient Chinese Art being offered for sale by Colonel cker's estate through two antique dealers in Hallandale, FL, Pennington's Antiques and Edward J. Koch Antiques. I purchased many of the jades and some of the small archaic bronzes plus some of the journals and Chinese memorabilia."

  6. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 30, 2016) Period changed from "Neolithic period" to "Late Neolithic period"; title changed from "toothed pendant" to "Pendant in form of a mask"; in the Text Entries field added Chinese translation, and unpublished research by Jenny So; added past label text.

Draft catalogue entry for F1991.52; by Jenny F. So (2003)

Toothed and scrolled plaque
Neolithic period, ca. 3500--3000 BCE
Hongshan 紅山 culture, northeast China
Nephrite, semitranslucent, cloudy gray-green with black specks
L 17.2 × W 5.7 × 0.5 cm thick
F1991.52

A pair of circular holes bracketed by semicircular slits above and bounded by seven pairs of pointed teeth-like projections below form the main features of this elongated plaque. Symmetrically curved and hooked scroll-like elements extend from both edges. Together, they suggest a face with eyes, brows, and teeth flanked by curly locks at the sides. Subtly undulating ridges and grooves--almost imperceptible in places--further accentuate the contours of these elements.

There is a clear distinction between front and back. The back is flat and simply polished smooth. All details are worked from the front. The walls of the holes that form the "eyes" curve in toward the openings, which appear to have been simply poked through in the final stages of drilling, leaving jagged edges and a thin film of nephrite where they are pierced. By contrast, the central perforation between the slits is neatly drilled from both sides of the plaque. [1]

More than half a century since it was first collected by an American army liaison officer stationed in Shanghai 上海, and over a decade since this plaque was first published and presented to the Freer Gallery of Art, this plaque has finally found its archaeological counterparts in examples recovered from Hongshan 紅山 sites in northeast China. [2] But unlike the ornament S1987.842, this plaque remains a rare and unusual artifact of the Hongshan 紅山 people. There are so few examples known from archaeological contexts that it is worth listing them below.

1.  From Niuheliang 牛河梁 (N2 Z1 M9) [3]: small (L 6.2 cm) with three sets of teeth (fig. 1). [4] A greatly simplified version has been recovered from Tomb 5 at Anyang 安陽 (ca. 1000 BCE). [5]
2.  From Niuheliang 牛河梁 (N2 Z1 M22): medium (L 14 cm) with five sets of teeth. [6] A fragment of a similar plaque was recovered from the early Western Zhou (ca. 1000 BCE) grave of a Duke of Yan 燕 at Liulihe 琉璃河, Beijing 北京. If complete, this plaque would measure about 11 cm long with five sets of teeth. [7]
3.  From Niuheliang 牛河梁 (N2 Z1 M27): Large (L 28.6 cm) with five sets of unusually long teeth almost half the height of the plaque (fig. 2). [8]
4.  Collected in 1980 from Inner Mongolia: no dimensions available; similar in size to the Freer example, but with ten sets of teeth. [9]

Known but unprovenanced examples in Chinese and Western collections include:
1. Former Abel William Bahr and Sackler Collections: small (L 5.1 cm) with three sets of teeth. [10]
2. Tianjin 天津 Art Museum: medium (L 6.5 cm) with seven sets of teeth. [11]
3. Sackler Collections: medium (damaged); if complete, it should be about 14 cm long with five sets of teeth. [12]

As one of a small handful known, the Freer plaque is a text-book example of this classic Hongshan 紅山 type in design, material, and workmanship. The scroll pendant with teeth is often linked with, and thought to have derived from, jade plaques showing single or double swirling scrolls, which many scholars read as birds or bird-heads. [13] Comparison with similar scrolled designs on pottery from third and second millennium BCE sites along the Amur River in south Russia further suggests that the motif was popular throughout the northeast coast, and as a bird-like design, supports its association with shamanistic practices in that region. [14] As scholars continue to discuss the genesis and meaning of this evocative design, its role as a status or religious symbol and its importance within the Hongshan 紅山 cultural complex remain undisputed. [15]

Published: Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, "Jades of the Hongshan Culture: the Dragon and Fertility Cult Worship," Arts Asiatiques 46 (1991), fig. 4; Deng Shuping 鄧淑蘋, "Longxi? fengxi? You liangjian xingongbu de Hongshan yuqi tanqi 龍兮? 鳳兮? 由兩件新公佈的紅山玉器談起," Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 = The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 114 (1992), fig. 2; Jenny F. So, "A Hongshan Jade Pendant in the Freer Gallery of Art," Orientations 24, no. 5 (1993), fig. 1a-b; Guo Dashun 郭大順, "Hongshan wenhua gouyunxing yupei yanjiu: Liaohe wenming xunli zhisi 紅山文化勾雲形玉佩研究: 遼河文明巡禮之四," Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 = The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 164 (1996), fig. 13; Jenny F. So and Janet G. Douglas, "Understanding and Identifying Jades from the Hongshan Culture," in Dongya yuqi 東亞玉器 = East Asian Jade: Symbol of Excellence, ed. by Deng Cong (Xianggang: Zhongguo kaogu yishu yanjiu zhongxin, 1998), pls. 15:1--5; Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫, Chūgoku kogyokuki sōsetsu 中国古玉器総說 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1999), fig. 4-26.

Figures:
1. N2 Z1 M9 pendant (Liaoning sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 遼寧省文物考古研究所, Niuheliang Hongshan wenhua yizhi yu yuqi jingcui 牛河梁紅山文化遺址與玉器精粹 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1997), no. 24.

2. N2 Z1 M27 pendant (Liaoning sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 遼寧省文物考古研究所, Niuheliang Hongshan wenhua yizhi yu yuqi jingcui 牛河梁紅山文化遺址與玉器精粹 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1997), no. 46.

[1] For a detailed technical study of this plaque, see Jenny F. So and Janet G. Douglas, "Understanding and Identifying Jades from the Hongshan Culture," in Dongya yuqi 東亞玉器 = East Asian Jade: Symbol of Excellence, ed. Deng Cong (Xianggang: Zhongguo kaogu yishu yanjiu zhongxin, 1998), pp. 148--52.

[2] See Jenny F. So, "A Hongshan Jade Pendant in the Freer Gallery of Art," Orientations 24, no. 5 (1993), pp. 87--92.

[3] This notation follows that used by Liaoning 遼寧 archaeologists: N2 means Niuheliang 牛河梁 location 2; Z1 means cairn no. 1; M9 means tomb 9.

[4] Jenny F. So, "A Hongshan Jade Pendant in the Freer Gallery of Art," Orientations 24, no. 5 (1993), fig. 6b; Liaoning sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 遼寧省文物考古研究所, Niuheliang Hongshan wenhua yizhi yu yuqi jingcui 牛河梁紅山文化遺址與玉器精粹 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1997), no. 24.

[5] Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo 中國社會科學院考古研究所, Yinxu Fuhao mu 殷墟婦好墓 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1980), pl. 162:1, bottom left.

[6] Unpublished to date, but seen by the author in May 1993 courtesy of archaeologist Xin Zhanshan 辛占山 at the Liaoning 遼寧 Institute of Archaeology, Shenyang 沈陽, and discussed in Jenny F. So, "Addendum to 'A Hongshan Jade Pendant in the Freer Gallery of Art'," in Chinese Jade: Selected Articles from Orientations, 1983--1996 (Hong Kong: Orientations Magazine, 1997), p. 171. It was one of three jades recovered from Tomb 22; the other two being a tubular ornament like S1987.842 and a bracelet. Details of this grave have not been published to date.

[7] Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo Beijing shi wenwu gongzuodui 中國社會科學院考古研究所北京市文物工作隊 and Liulihe kaogudui 琉璃河考古隊, "1981--1983 nian Liulihe Xizhou Yanguo mudi fajue jianbao 1981--1983年琉璃河西周燕囯墓地發掘簡報," Kaogu 考古 1984.5, pl. 4:1, top right.

[8] Liaoning sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 遼寧省文物考古研究所, Niuheliang Hongshan wenhua yizhi yu yuqi jingcui 牛河梁紅山文化遺址與玉器精粹 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1997), no. 46. To date, details of the grave that yielded this jade are not published.

[9] Exhibited in Treasures on Grassland: Archaeological Finds from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in Shanghai 上海, 2000, but not included in the published catalogue.

[10] Alfred Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China (Berkeley, CA: Gillick Press, 1938), pl. VII: 6; Jenny F. So, "A Hongshan Jade Pendant in the Freer Gallery of Art," Orientations 24, no. 5 (1993), fig. 6d (line drawing); sold at Christie's in 1994, lot 77.

[11] Tianjin shi yishu bowuguan 天津市藝術博物館, Tianjin shi yishu bowuguan cang yu 天津市藝術博物館藏玉 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1993), no. 5; Jenny F. So, "A Hongshan Jade Pendant in the Freer Gallery of Art," Orientations 24, no. 5 (1993), fig. 6b.

[12] Sold at Christie's in 1994, lot 89.

[13] See Deng Shuping 鄧淑蘋, "Longxi? fengxi? You liangjian xingongbu de Hongshan yuqi tanqi 龍兮? 鳳兮? 由兩件新公佈的紅山玉器談起," Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 = The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 114 (1992), pp. 4--11; You Rende 尤仁德, "Shouwen yu xiaowen de youhuo: Xinfaxian de chuanshi Longshan wenhua yuqi 獸紋與鴞紋的誘惑: 新發現的傳世龍山文化玉器," Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 = The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 138 (1994), pp. 52--61, where he also proposes that the toothed scrolled plaques developed from plaques with single swirls.

[14] On the other hand, Guo Dashun has argued that the toothed plaques were not ornaments worn horizontally, but rather jade axes displayed vertically with the serrated edge away from the body, based on the orientation of similar plaques in Hongshan 紅山 graves (Guo Dashun 郭大順, "Hongshan wenhua gouyunxing yupei yanjiu: Liaohe wenming xunli zhisi 紅山文化勾雲形玉佩研究: 遼河文明巡禮之四," Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 = The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 164 (1996), pp. 42--67). While locations of objects in tombs often provide useful information regarding their use, they should not be taken at face value because objects can shift position in the tomb over time.

[15] As rightly pointed out by Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫 in Chūgoku kogyokuki sōsetsu 中国古玉器総說 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1999), pp. 162--163, the genesis of this design is not as simple as originally implied by my discussion in 1993. In particular, with C14 date now available for the Inner Mongolian site of Dadianzi 大甸子, where the single swirling scrolled version came from, the development proposed in 1993 can no longer stand.

• J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
• Shuping Deng. Neolithic jades in the collection of the National Palace Museum. no. 114 Tabei Shi, September 1992. p. 5, fig. 2.
• The Harris Collection: Important Early Chinese Art. New York, March 2017. p. 8, fig. 1.
• Shuping Deng. You ‘jia’ dao ‘zhen’ de jianxin manchanglu: Yi Hongshan yuqi weili. no. 217 Taipei, 2001. p. 17, fig. 15.
• Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, Fang Gu. Yuqi shidai: Meiguo bowuguan cang Zhongguo zaoqi yuqi [The Jade Age: Early Chinese Jades in American Museums]. Beijing, 2009. pp. 24-25.
• Dashun Guo. Hongshan wenhua gouyunxing yupei yanjiu: Liaohe wenming xunli zhisi. no. 164 Taipei, 1996. p. 48, fig. 13.
• Elizabeth Childs-Johnson. Jades of the Hongshan Culture: The Dragon and Fertility Cult Worship. tome XLVI, 1991. p. 85, fig. 4.
• Meili Yang. Juanyunshan (Jiaoji) Cuishi Shuilinlin: Xinshiqi Shidai Beifangxi Huanxing Yuqi Xilie zhi yi: Gouyun Xingqi. no. 126 Taipei, 1993. p. 86, fig. 11.
• Jenny F. So. A Hongshan Jade Pendant in the Freer Gallery of Art. Hong Kong, May 1993. pp. 87-92.
• Mary Belle O' Brien. Iconic Images and Jade Textile Tools for Neolithic and Bronze Age China's Silk Industry., July 2009. p. 196, fig. 19c.
• Andrew Lawler. Beyond the Yellow River: How China Became China. vol. 325 no.5943 Washington, August 21, 2009. p. 935.