bi
- Museum number
- 2022,3034.58
- Description
-
Disc-bi of semi-translucent brown and white stone with veining and inclusions polished to a good gloss. The brown areas are mostly round the outer rim forming a U-shape with the translucent white area reaching from one section of the outer rim across the middle of the disc.
- Production date
- 4000BC-2000BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 21.60 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Possibly from north-west China. c.2000BC-1500BC. Although this disc is cut from good translucent nephrite, it is, rather unevenly made. Its thickness varies across its width: there is a ridge on one side and traces of a straight incision on the other. Part of the rim has decomposed and broken away. It is probable that this piece was made in one of the western neolithic cultures. Discs which vary conspicuously across their width were also used in the Shijiahe neolithic culture in Hubei province. See Rawson 1995, p.158, cat.no.7:8.
-
This is also an irregular circular disc of uneven thickness with a raised ridge on one side and a bevelled straight incision on the other. A ragged segment is missing from the perimeter possibly due to decomposition of the stone and there is a slanting central conical perforation. Neolithic. Diameter 216mm.
- Location
- On display (G33b/dc5)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2002, BM, 'Chinese Jade'
Previous loan number: 2014,AsiaLoan.90
- Acquisition date
- 2022
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 2022,3034.58
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: 437 (Hotung database number)
