Lot 67
East Asia, China, Neolithic, Liangzhu culture, ca. 3300 to 2250 BCE. A fine ritual funerary item known as a "cong," hand-carved from mottled brown and gray stone. The intriguing implement features a cylindrical interior cavity with a thick rim as well as a relatively rectangular body with 4 projecting corners on each end and sharp edges along its length. The asymmetrical drill markings can still be seen within the body to show exactly how this cong was formed, and a raised band can be felt at the center of the interior, leftover from the process of drilling in from each end. Size: 3.4" W x 2.3" H (8.6 cm x 5.8 cm)
The Liangzhu people formed city-states in modern China's southeastern provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, encompassing modern Shanghai. These city-states were centered around religious and administration functions, and a major innovation of the period was the development of jade worked into ritual implements and weapons (instead of just burial suits). This included the cong, which is defined in later ritual texts as a symbol of the earth. Archaeologists have excavated hundreds of Liangzhu burials, ranging from many small graves containing few burial goods to a limited number of high status graves located in in large chambers below mounds, with hundreds or even thousands of burial goods. For example, at the Fanshan site, a large earthen mound that contained eleven tombs, archaeologists found over three thousand pieces of carved jade, in addition to stone and pottery items. The cong shape was so powerfully symbolic that archaeologists have proposed that some of the Liangzhu burial mounds themselves are shaped like the ritual implement when viewed from above - a round, central earthen altar with four axially located burial grounds, surrounded by a square moat.
Provenance: private Brighton, Massachusetts, USA collection, purchased in 1989 from Suzhou Cultural Relics Store, Suzhou, China
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#189973
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Condition:
- Chipping to circular rim on one side, as well as some stable hairline fissures in areas. Light surface wear commensurate with age as shown. Otherwise, intact and excellent with smooth surfaces. Accompanied by padded box with latch. Loosening to one corner of box that does not affect cong.
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