Jades for Life and Death

Classification: Ceremonial Object

Historical period(s): Anyang period, Late Shang dynasty, ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE

Object Date: ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE

Medium: Marble

Dimension(s): H x W x D: 15.4 × 3 × 1.4 cm (6 1/16 × 1 3/16 × 9/16 in)

Origin: China, probably Henan province, Anyang

Credit Line: The Dr. Paul Singer Collection of Chinese Art of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; a joint gift of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Paul Singer, the AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, and the Children of Arthur M. Sackler

Collection: Arthur M. Sackler Collection

Accession Number: S2012.9.283

: 柄形器
晚商安陽時期（公元前1250--1050年）
中國，疑似河南安陽市
大理石
高15.4、寬3、厚1.4釐米
史密森博物學院亞瑟·M·賽克勒美術館保羅·辛格中國藝術收藏品；亞瑟·M·賽克勒基金會，保羅·辛格，AMS基金會，及亞瑟·M·賽克勒子女聯合贈送
器物編號：S2012.9.283

Past label text: 1. (Keith Wilson, Anyang: China's Ancient City of Kings, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, February 25, 2023 to April 28, 2024)

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Jade (nephrite)
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler S1987.671

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Jade (nephrite)
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment F1939.31

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Jade (nephrite)
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler S1987.493

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Marble
The Dr. Paul Singer Collection of Chinese Art of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; a joint gift of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Paul singer, the AMS Foundation for the arts, sciences, and humanities, and the children of Arthur M. Sackler S2012.9.283

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Jade (nephrite)
Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1915.234

Ritual in the Afterlife
The contents of Anyang tombs reveal the need to continue rituals in the afterlife. In addition to bronze food and wine containers, stone handle-shaped objects like the five seen here are sometimes found inscribed with the honorific names used for deceased ancestors, suggesting they played a role in spiritual offerings. Other objects may have been specifically created for burial, like miniature, unfinished, and fragmentary jade dagger-axes; along with thin, impractical bronze examples, they offered symbolic protection. Both human and animal sacrifice also feature regularly in Anyang tombs, and a small bronze collar bell is often found with the skeleton of a dog buried directly below the main tomb occupant. Such funerary goods exhibit the same surface patterns found on other Anyang ritual objects.

Curatorial Remarks

1. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, 8/14/17) Period two changed from "early Anyang period" to "Anyang period"; date changed from "ca. 1300-1200 BCE" to "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE"; geography changed from "China, Henan province, probably Anyang" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang"; and medium changed from "Jade" to "Jade (nephrite)".

2. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, December 13, 2018) Added Chinese translation by Jingmin Zhang;

3. (Jeffrey Smith, March 15, 2019) Medium changed from "Jade (nephrite)" to "Marble", per the analysis of Matthew Clarke.
4. (YinYing Chen per Keith Wilson, February 13, 2023)
Change title from "Ancestor tablet" to "Tablet."
Change object name from "Tablet" to "Ritual object: Tablet."
Change date from "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE" to "ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE."
Change date from "公元前1300-1050年" to "公元前1250-1050年" in the translation field.
Change medium from "軟玉" to "大理石".

Unpublished Research: Draft catalogue entry (no. 101) for S2012.9.283 for the catalogue of the Singer collection (1970--90); by Louise Fitzgerald Huber
Handle
Shang 商 dynasty, 13th century BCE
Marble
Length 15.3 cm (6 in)

The body of the handle, tapering slightly toward the roughly finished lower end, is joined to the rectangular bar at the top by a section of narrower width set off by two transverse grooves. On one side, the surface shows several sets of short parallel cuts. The sets are adjacent and at different angles, but they form no coherent pattern and are probably scars left from the process of shaping the handle. The piece is similar to a marble handle from Tomb 5 at Xiaotun 小屯. [1]

Note:

[1] Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo 中國社會科學院考古研究所, Yinxu Fu Hao mu 殷墟婦好墓 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1980), pl. 173: 3 second from right.

Published References

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

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Tablet

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