Pendant with human hybrid, fragment

• 1. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 29, 2008) Jewelry and Ornament added as secondary classification.
   
  2. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, June 23, 2010) Object name changed from "Pendant: mask" to "Jewelry."
  

  3. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, November 15, 2019) Title changed from "Human head plaque" to "Pendant with human hybrid, fragment"; Date changed from "9th-7th century BCE" to "ca. 1050-950 BCE"; Medium changed from "Jade (nephrite)" to "Jade"; added Chinese Caption by Jingmin Zhang; and added Unpublished Research by Louisa Fitzgerald Huber.

Draft catalogue entry (no. 321) for RLS1997.48.3702 for the catalogue of the Singer collection (1970--1990); by Louisa Fitzgerald Huber
Human head Plaque
Western Zhou 周 dynasty, late 9th--7th century BCE
Jade
Length 2.1 cm (13/16 in)
 
The translucent, white, shield shaped plaque shows a human head in profile with a bulbous nose and long hair.
The design, as indicated by the quasi zoomorphic band issuing from the head, is incomplete. The present  shield shaped plaque has been refashioned from an originally longer piece, probably not unlike the rectangular  tablet in the British Museum, London, that includes two similar human headed figures separated from each other  by S shaped bands ending in bird and dragon heads. [1] Two holes drilled from the back join two additional holes  drilled inward from the notches at the left side. The reverse is undecorated.
 
The design of the human head compares closely to one that appears on an openwork plaque of the late Western
Zhou 周 from Tomb 11 at Tanghu 唐戶, Xinzheng xian 新鄭縣, Henan 河南 province, and to another on a plaque of the same date recovered at Huangdui 黃堆, near Fufeng 扶風, Shaanxi 陝西 province. [2]

Shield shaped plaques with different surface patterns  have been excavated from a cemetery of the state of Guo 虢 at Shangcunling 上村嶺, Henan 河南, antedating 655 BCE, and from  the tomb of Huangjun Meng 黃君孟 and his wife at Baoxiangsi 寳相寺, Guangshan xian 光山縣, Henan 河南, which is dated earlier than  648 BCE. [3] 
 

[1] Alfred Salmony, Carved Jades of Ancient China (Berkeley, C.A.: Gillick Press, 1938), pl. 27: 2; Soame Jenyns, Chinese Archaic Jades in the British Museum (London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 1951), pl. 30 right.

[2] For Tomb 11, see Kaifeng diqu Wenguanhui 開封地區文管會, Xinzheng xian Wenguanhui 新鄭縣文管會, and Zhengzhou daxue lishixi kaogu zhuanye 鄭州大學歷史系考古專業, "Henan sheng Xinzheng xian Tanghu liang Zhou muzang fajue jianbao 河南省新鄭縣唐戶兩周墓葬發掘簡報," Wenwu ziliao congkan 文物資料叢刊, no. 2 (1978), p. 48, fig. 7: 1, p. 60, fig. 61; for Huangdui 黃堆, see Shaanxi Zhouyuan kaogudui 陝西周原考古隊, "Fufeng Huangdui Xizhou mudi zuantan qingli jianbao 扶風黃堆西周墓地鑽探清理簡報," Wenwu 文物 1986.8, p. 63, fig. 27.

[3] For Shangcunling 上村嶺, see Zhongguo kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo 中國科學院考古研究所, ed., Shangcun ling Guo guo mudi 上村嶺虢囯墓地 (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1959), pl. 24: 1, pl. 25: 1 2; for Baoxiangsi 寳相寺, see Henan Xinyang diqu wenguanhui 河南信陽地區文管會 and Guangshan xian wenguanhui 光山縣文管會, "Chunqiu zaoqi Huangjun Meng fufumu fajue baogao 春秋早期黃君孟夫婦墓發掘報告,"  Kaogu 考古 1984.4, p. 326, fig. 27: 11 13.

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