**First Time At Auction**

East Asia, China, Neolithic, Liangzhu culture, ca. 3300 to 2250 BCE. A stunning and finely-formed ritual funerary item known as a "cong," carved by hand from a creamy peach-hued hardstone with beige and light-grey inclusions. The cong bears a square form, a circular opening drilled through the center, and four projecting corners with sharply-grooved contours. Each of the exterior corners boasts a pair of incised abstract faces, one with minimalist eyes and a broad headband filled with intricate curvilinear motifs, and another with enormous egg-shaped eye panels filled with similarly-intricate motifs. This cong was formed through a meticulous carving and smoothing process using awls, drills, and abrasives of varying fineness, and boasts an incredibly smooth surface which is pleasing to the touch. Stone items like this one formed part of the decoration of these tombs and seem to have been reserved for the most elite people in society, and clearly had great significance, but meaning and purpose of congs remains a mystery. Size: 3.5" W x 2.6" H (8.9 cm x 6.6 cm)

Cong-tubes, with their distinct square cross-section and a hole in the center often combined with spiritual emblems of animal and human masks at the corners as in this example, are a hallmark of Liangzhu culture. Despite the lack of a conclusive theory as to how both the form and design were derived, there is no dispute that the cong-tube occupies an important place in the study of Liangzhu Culture. Congs that are shorter in height and are more elaborately carved, like this example, are frequently from an earlier date, while larger pieces of simpler design were generally created later. The funerary function of congs like this example probably had a religious connotation. Some scholars of Chinese Neolithic history and anthropology posit that the cong is "based on the ancient Chinese notion that earth was square and heaven round, while the hole in the object represents the passage connecting heaven and earth." (Weichao, Yu. "A Journey into China's Antiquity - Volume 1: Paleolithic Age - Spring and Autumn Period." National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing, China, 1997, p. 80)

Provenance: private New Jersey, USA collection; ex-Arts du Monde, New York, USA, before 2000

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#177761

Some light abrasions and minor nicks to surface, commensurate with age. Tiny chip to one corner and natural surface fissures to stone in areas, but otherwise, intact and excellent with good preservation of incised detail.