POST SHIJIAHE CULTURE, CIRCA 2100-1600 BC

It is believed hair ornaments of this type were inserted upright into a Shaman’s hair, and probably used as a ritual object to increase Shamans’ powers of communication with heaven. An almost identical hair ornament (11.45 cm.), dating to the late Shijiahe Culture, is in the National Palace Museum Collection (acquisition no. guyu 1082/tian-717- 1-7-14) and illustrated in Art in Quest of Heaven and Truth- Chinese Jades through the Ages, Taipei, 2012, pl. 4-5-11. In the catalogue, it is stated that the Shijiahe people belonged to the bird-worshipping Yi people who moved from the Shandong Peninsula to the middle reach of the Yangzi River. Another very similar but reduced example in the Museum (acquisition no. guyu5821/lv-1804-1) is illustrated ibid., p. 35, pl. 3-3-30. A slightly longer jade ornament of almost identical design (13.6 cm. long) and attributed to Shijiahe Culture was excavated from the Shang dynasty Fu Hao tomb, its line drawing illustrated in Teng Shup’ing, Collectors’ Exhibition of Archaic Chinese Jades, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, p. 30, pl. 21:1.