Questions in jade

GINA BARNES describes the artefacts unearthed at Niuheliang, a Neolithic site northeast of Beijing, which has been claimed as the ultimate source of Chinese civilisation

Niuheliang, an unusual ritual site to the northeast of Beijing, was not discovered until 1981. Thirty years ago no one would have suspected that a major early culture (c.3500- 3000BC) would be discovered in this area and certainly not one that displays features rare, if not unknown, in central China: structures of stone (compressed earth and brick is more usual in central China) and figures of women. Deities were rarely depicted in human form at central Chinese sites, yet not just human-like figures, but ones of women were of key importance in this northeast site. A ritual building was supplied with clay images of females. Carvings of jade, including coiled dragons, known as pig-dragons, have led archaeologists to claim this site as the ultimate source of Chinese civilisation.

In a 50 square kilometre area over several hill ridges at Niuheliang lie 14 mainly stone-built burial mounds yielding jades, the remains of a pit-building containing life-size human sculptures and several compounds. No contemporaneous settlements or remains of living communities have been found nearby. The pit-building, called a "goddess temple" after the female sculptures found there, is sited at a place from which a distant mountain, called Mulan by local residents, appears in the shape of a reclining animal. Liaoning archaeologists speculate that this mountain was an integral part of the ritual complex, focused on the temple.

All Hongshan sites, including Niuheliang and its neighbour Dongshanzui, have painted earthenware and rocker-stamped textured pottery. Settlement sites also have the basic subsistence goods of a mixed economy: wood-working, hunting and cultivating tools such as hoes, bone awls, chipped points and hammerstones. High-status Hongshan burials also yield jades in animal and abstract shapes.

The stone tombs at Niuheliang are built in clusters. The first group and the most carefully decribed, contain at least six tombs. Among the jades are some wondrous hooked cloud and flared tube shapes. No less controversial are the circular split-rings with one end fashioned into an animal face. The principal excavator of Niuheliang, Guo Dashun, distinguishes two types of animal in these: "pig-dragons" with pug nose, narrow eyes and mane, and the bear with round eyes, short ears and no mane. Whatever its exact identity, the jade animal shapes resemble the shape of Mulan.

Many questions are posed by the presence of the site. Why is it here? Who built Niuheliang and where did they live? Was this their principal ritual centre, and if so, how much was it used and over how many decades or centuries? What were the different structures used for, and what were the functions of the stone foundations on the mountain summit?

How are we to view the jades found at Niuheliang? Are the dragon carvings the ancestors of later jade dragons? Were there links with the better known central neolithic cultures, such as the Yangshao on the Wei and Yellow Rivers, dating to about 4500BC?

Should we take the sites at Niuheliang, and Dongshanzui as the sources of the religions by which we define Chinese culture? How do the sculptures compare with those from neolithic Europe and from Egypt and Mesopotamia? Should we see the bear and boar symbolism as the origins of later interest in these animals, including in the Han periods (206BC-AD220)? All these questions show how far outside the range of expectations lies Niuheliang. It seems unlikely that we shall soon learn the answers.

Gina Barnes, professor at the centre for research in east Asian archaeology, University of Durham has worked with the principal excavator of Niuheliang, Guo Dashun.