PROBABLY 10TH CENTURY BC, SICHUAN PROVINCE

The triangular shape of this ge blade is associated with Sichuan province. Blades of this type have been dated as early as Western Zhou and as late as Warring States period, including one of similar type, also cast at the top of the blade with a bird, in the Chongqing City Museum, Sichuan, illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtonqi Quanji - 13 - Ba Shu, Beijing, 1994, p. 126, no. 138. Unlike the present blade, there is no hole through the bird, but the rest of the blade is very similar. See, also, the ge of similar type cast on both sides with a taotie surrounding a hole excavated at Pengzhou Zhuwajie, Sichuan, dated probably first half of the first millenium BC, illustrated by R. Bagley, ed., Ancient Sichuan: Treasures from a Lost Civilization, Seattle Art Museum, 2001, p. 195, no. 68. Like the present blade, both of the published examples have a straight edge to the back of the blade.