A jade ceremonial axe, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture | 新石器時代良渚文化 玉鉞

A Hong Kong private collection, assembled during the 1970s and 1980s.

香港私人收藏，1970至80年代集成

This jade axe is outstanding for its smoothly polished shiny surface and its semi-translucent stone of a milky-white colour. Jade axe such as the present lot is much rarer than bi disc or even the cong tube, as it is reserved for only the most elite tombs and there is usually only one such axe found in each of these tombs. For example, see a closely related jade axe excavated at the Fanshan site in Yuhang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where the tomb contains hundreds of jade and stone wares including jade cong, bi and stone axe but only one axe made from jade, see Quanli yu xinyang: liangzhu yizhi kaogu tezhan [Power and belief: A special exhibition of Liangzhu archaeological excavation sites], Beijing, 2015, pp.169-179.

全器製作講究，無開料剩餘的切割痕跡，通體白化，有棕色紋路。在良渚文化玉器中，玉鉞數量甚稀，遠比琮、璧少。與琮璧等不同的是，玉鉞一般出自男性墓，故有學者猜測玉鉞是軍事權力的象徵，玉鉞的稀有程度，由浙江省杭州市余杭區反山遺址M20大墓出土情況可見一斑。該墓出土數百件玉器，其中包括4件精美的玉琮、43件玉璧以及24件石鉞，而玉鉞則只有一件，見《權力與信仰：良渚遺址群考古特展》，北京，2015年，頁169-179。