SHIJIAHE CULTURE-XIA DYNASTY, CIRCA 2600-1700 BC

Monster-like human face jades, with bulging eyes and protruding teeth features, are closely related to the decoration of jades of the Shijiahe culture from Hubei province. A number of similar examples excavated in 1955 and 1981 at Shijiahe culture sites are illustrated in Du Jinpeng, ‘Shijiahe yudiao shenxiang qianshuo’, Jianghan kaogu [Jianghan Archaeology], 1993 March, pp. 51-59; another very similar example (fig. 1), also with a bird-form crown, unearthed in 2006 from the tomb of Marquis Jin in Yangshe village, Quwo county, is illustrated in Wang Qing, ‘’Shilun zaoqi Zhongguo jizhong zhuangshi shenling xingxiang de zuheshi yuqi’, Cultural Relics of Central China, 2018 April, p. 52. The cited articles discuss and compare these human mask jades from different archaeological sites in the Neolithic period in detail, and include an example from the British Museum, which is illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade-from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 37. Compare also to a very rare celadon jade plaque carved with an anthropomorphic face, also from the Yangdetang Collection sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 November 2017, lot 2722 (fig. 2).