Measurement: 8 cm in height
Period: Late Shang dynasty (circa. 13rd-11th century BCE)
Provenance: Unearthed at Fengtang village, Huaiyang county, Henan province,1981.

Discovered from a tomb of late Shang dynasty, this jade pendent, carved in round the approximate outline of a bird’s head and a pair of wings on either side, is decorated with several bands of bowstring in the lower part, and a perforation was carved in the center for thread.
Bird is of great importance in the Shang culture, which is demonstrated with the numerous bird images on the Shang jade articles.Wearing the bird-shaped jade object, on the one hand, is the ideological demonstration of the Shang people, and who believe that the bird is connected with the god, that is associated with the legend “A black bird descended from the heaven with the edict of the god and give rise to establishment of the Shang”, thus it affected the aesthetic tendencies and ideology of the Shang people; on the other hand, the rarity and preciousness, and the elaborate craftsmanship of jade object also display the social status and wealth of the wearer.