Longshan Culture
Height: 10.2cm
Width: 4.9cm

The jade pendant belongs to the relics of Longshan culture. Openwork and light relief designs are worked from a mottled green stone. The motif is an awful phoenix standing upright, with its head held high, a beast in its mouth and a human head in its claws. Inscriptions on bones denote that phoenix, the pronunciation of which is almost the same as that of wind in Chinese, was the symbol of wind. The figure of a phoenix overcoming beast and man suggests that ancient people used animals and human heads as sacrifices to worship the god of wind, while praying for favorable weather and a bumper harvest.