Tube (cong 琮)

• 1. (Thomas Lawton, 1987) In Praise of Ancestors exhibition label text; moved to label field.

  2. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 17, 2008) Ceremonial objects added as secondary classification.

  3. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 20, 2010) Object name changed from "Cong 琮" to "Ceremonial object." Title changed from "Cong 琮" to "Tube (cong 琮)."

  4. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 2, 2017) Title changed from "Tube (cong)" to "Tube (cong 琮)"; period one changed from "Shang dynasty" to "Probably Late Shang dynasty"; period two added "Anyang period"; geography changed from "China" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang"; date changed from "ca. 2nd Millennium BCE" to "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE"; object name changed from "ceremonial object" to "tube".

  5. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, July 26, 2018) period one changed from "Probably Late Shang dynasty" to "Late Neolithic period"; date changed from "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE" to "ca. 2000-1000 BCE"; added "Sanxingdui culture (ca. 2000-ca. 1000 BCE); changed "China, Henan province, Anyang" to "China, Sichuan province"; added Chinese translation by Jingmin Zhang; added the following to the description, "Cong; hollow with rectangular body and circular ends; marbled green color. (Top section broken off and rejoined, surface of repair has cement-like adhesion; surface of jade pitted, nicked, hairline cracks; corners have chips; some areas have flecks of silvery or quartz-like element.)"; and added unpublished research by Jenny So; medium changed from "Jade" to "Jade (nephrite)".

  
  

  6. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, April 2, 2020) Medium changed to just "jade." Object is on display in the Castle and so hasn't been material tested scientifically.

Draft catalogue entry for S1987.467; by Jenny F. So (2003)

Cong 琮 -- ritual instrument
Bronze Age, 2nd millennium BCE
Possibly southwest China
Stone, uneven light olive green with dark green and rust patches
Height 31.6--31.9 cm; dimensions at top 11.90 x 11.90 cm; at bottom 11.90 x 11.73 cm; diameter of opening 7.81--8.21 cm
Former A. W. Bahr collection
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler
S1987.467

This is the heaviest and most massive cong 琮 in the collections. Unlike most other tall cong 琮, it does not taper from top to bottom. It is precisely shaped, and the surface [is] left entirely undecorated. Inside the opening, three ledges are visible marking the imperfect meetings of the drilling process. The low collar at top and bottom are unevenly rounded and narrows slightly toward the rim. It has been broken about two-thirds up and repaired.

Completely undecorated cong 琮, large or small, are difficult to date because of the lack of decorative figures and because they have been found over a long period (see F1917.142 and F1917.41). Often, only minor quirks of manufacturing techniques and the character of the material offer the only clues to their possible date or provenance. In the present case, the extraordinary size, weight, and unusual marbled stone--not nephrite--all associate it with similar over-sized stone ritual objects from southwest China, in particular, finds from Jinsha 金沙 in Chengdu 成都, Sichuan 四川 province. [1] The shape's presence in Sichuan 四川, far away from its original home along the eastern seaboard, demonstrates that this Liangzhu 良渚 -inspired object might have had a very different function and meaning when the local taste for over-sized items and local materials were applied in their production.

[1] For more examples of objects made from similarly marbled and colorful stone, see Chengdu shi wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 成都市文物考古研究所 and Beijing daxue kaogu wenbo yuan 北京大學考古文博院, Jinsha taozhen: Chengdu shi Jinsha cun yizhi chutu wenwu 金沙淘珍--成都市金沙村遺址出土文物 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2002), cat. 21.

• J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .