A jade cong that is shaped as a tall cylinder and stands upright. It is black in color. The outer part of the cong is square in shape with some simple engraved details along the edges. There is a hole at the center top of the piece.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The jade cong is shaped as a tall cylinder and stands upright. It is black in color with a dark grey background. The outer part of the cong is square in shape with some simple engraved details along the edges. The top and bottom of the cong have no details and come to blunt ends. There is a hole at the center top of the piece.

Gallery Text

Before the advent of metallurgy, numerous Neolithic cultures — which relied primarily upon stone tools, farming, domesticated animals, and pottery making — were scattered throughout vast regions of China. The cultures that produced the most remarkable earthenware (ceramics fired up to about 1000° C) tended to inhabit areas along China’s major rivers, and by the late Neolithic period (c. 5000–c. 2000 BCE), two notable ceramic types distinguished themselves from coarser utilitarian pottery — painted earthenware from settlements along the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, and black pottery from cultures near the lower Yellow and Yangzi River valleys. Painted ceramics were hand-built, made of fine reddish or buff clays, and embellished with dark slip (liquid clay) to create vibrant, mostly abstract designs. Black pottery vessels were wheel-thrown, sometimes to the thinness of an eggshell, blackened during the firing process, and burnished to a high gloss. These delicate objects were impractical for daily use and were likely used for ceremonial purposes. Several Neolithic cultures also fashioned beautiful jades or hard stones — usually nephrite, an extremely hard mineral native to China — into ceremonial tools and weapons, ritual objects, or items of personal adornment. These jades were sliced, shaped, perforated, incised, and polished using non-metallic tools and abrasive crystals of even greater hardness than the jade itself, a painstakingly labor-intensive process that only the privileged could afford.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.510
Title
Squared Cylinder "Cong" with Human-face Motifs on 5.5 Registers
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
prism
Date
2500–2200 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture, c. 3300-2200 BCE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204528

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Mottled black and light gray nephrite
Dimensions
H. 16.6 x W. 8 x D. 8 cm (6 9/16 x 3 1/8 x 3 1/8 in.)
Weight 1956 g

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (by 1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Published Text

Catalogue
Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
Authors
Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber
Publisher
Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975)

Catalogue entry no. 236 by Max Loehr:

236 Heavy Ts’ung
Square, slightly tapering prism of mottled black and light gray stone, flawed by a natural depression on one of the faces. The corners are worked off sufficiently to give the impression of a tube projecting at either end of the prism, without, however, achieving a circular shape. The four sides are decorated like No. 235, but the unit is repeated five and a half times and the long ledges are not striated but plain. The perforation is drilled from both ends. Late Western Chou(?).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.510
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), no. 009, pp. 10-11
  • Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, 1975)., cat. no. 236, p. 181
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 78-80, cat. 3, figs. 1-2

Exhibition History

  • S427: Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Jades, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
  • Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 1740 Early China I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu