Pendant in the form of a mask, probably reworked from a tube (cong 琮)

• 1. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 29, 2008) Jewelry and Ornament added as secondary classification.

  2. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson,May 10, 2018) Title changed from "Ornament (shi)" to "Pendant in the form of a mask, probably reworked from a tube (cong 琮)"; period one changed from "Shang dynasty" to "Late Shang dynasty"; period two added "Anyang period"; geography changed from "China" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang"; date changed from "ca. 13th-11th BCE" to "ca. 1300-1050 BCE"; medium changed from "Jade" to "Jade (nephrite)"; object name changed from "Ornament: animal" to "Pendant"; added Chinese object caption by Jingmin Zhang; added the following to the description field, "Plaque, one side carved with masks, depressed "eyes"; pierced five times; incised details. (Spotty calcification.)"; and added unpublished research by Jenny F. So.

Draft catalogue entry for S1987.622; by Jenny F. So (2003)

Ornament
Late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, ca. early 2nd millennium BCE
Shijiahe 石家河 culture, middle Yangzi 揚子 valley
Nephrite, semi-translucent pale yellowish-white with altered white patches
Width 3.5 cm; height 2.5 cm; 0.5 cm thick
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler
S1987.622

A small feline head is worked from a slightly curved plaque. Its forehead rises to form a peaked bracket in the middle, flanked by facing scrolls that suggest ears. At the bottom, two inward curled hooks suggest a mouth or fangs. Two deep round depressions mark the eyes; these might have once held inlays. A larger hole is drilled through between the eyes, and two additional smaller holes pierce the forehead above. Short incised lines, crudely sketched in, frame and define these facial features. The back is smooth and undecorated, and all surfaces are dull. It is unclear how this ornament might have been attached.

This small plaque is a two-dimensional version of more sculptural feline heads that have come to be associated with the Shijiahe 石家河 peoples in the middle Yangzi 揚子 valley. One such feline decorates the bottom of a jade finial with a signature Shijiahe 石家河 semi-human image. Excavated counterparts have come from urn burials in Hubei 湖北 province and from sites as far as northern Shaanxi 陝西. [1] The use of circular inlays appears sometimes on slightly later jades from the late Neolithic site of Yanshi 偃師 Erlitou 二里頭, Henan 河南 province. [2] In form, it may be considered the two-dimensional precedent of the larger, more abstracted plaque in the same collection (see S1987.514).

[1] For example, from 1981 to 1983 excavations at Zhongxiang 中翔 Liuhe 六合 (Jingzhou diqu bowuguan 荊州地區博物館 and Zhongxiang xian bowuguan 鈡祥縣博物館, "Zhongxiang Liuhe yizhi 鈡祥六合遺址," Jianghan kaogu 江漢考古 1987.2, p. 4, pl. 4). Also illustrated in Yang Jianfang 楊健芳, Zhongguo guyu yanjiu lunwenji 中國古玉研究論文集, vol. I (Taibei: Zhongzhi meishu chubanshe, 2001), p. 55, fig. 3: 2. Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫, "Sekkaga bunka no gyokki o megutte 石家河文化の玉器をめぐって," Sen'oku Hakkokan kiyō 泉屋博古館紀要 16 (1999), fig. 11. For examples recovered from the northwest, at Shenmu 神木 Shimao 石峁, Shaanxi 陝西 province, see Dai Yingxin 戴應新, "Shenmu Shimao Longshan wenhua yuqi 神木石峁龍山文化玉器," Kaogu yu wenwu 考古與文物 1988.5--6, pl. 4: 1.

[2] Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo Erlitou dui 中國社會科學院考古研究所二里頭隊, "Henan Yanshi Erlitou erhao gongdian yizhi 河南偃師二里頭二號宮殿遺址," Kaogu 考古 1983.3, pp. 206--16, fig. 10: 1. Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo Erlitou gongzuodui 中國社會科學院考古研究所二里頭工作隊, "1987 nian Yanshi Erlitou yizhi muzang fajue jianbao 1987年偃師二里頭遺址墓葬發掘簡報," Kaogu 考古 1992.4, pp. 294--303, fig. 2: 8.

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