A jade 'eagle' hair ornament, ji, Neolithic period, Late Shijiahe culture | 新石器時代石家河文化晚期 鷹形玉笄

A very similar late Shijiahe culture jade 'eagle' hair ornament is illustrated in Art in Quest of Heaven and Truth. Chinese Jades Through the Ages, Taipei, 2012, pl. 4-5-11, where the author attributes this type of jade hairpin to the Yi community from Northeast China around the Shandong peninsula who moved “to the middle reaches of the Yangzi River, taking eagle worship to their new home. They loved to fix their hair using a jade pin with an eagle pattern in order to be blessed by the eagle god” (p. 57). See also an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no. 2009.87; and another Shijiahe culture jade 'eagle' hairpin discovered in the tomb of Fu Hao and illustrated in King Wu Ding and Lady Hao: Art and Culture of the Late Shang Dynasty, Taipei, 2012, cat. no. III-3.