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{
    "localId": "130939",
    "label": "Amulet in the Form of a Seated Figure with Bovine Head",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}

{
    "id": "130939",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Amulet in the Form of a Seated Figure with Bovine Head",
    "description": "With a bovine head and four horns, this seated figurine was a powerful ritual and shamanic symbol. Drill holes above its shoulders form two interconnected perforations for suspension, suggesting that the jade was originally used as a pendant, presumably by the shaman performing the tasks of journeying to and communicating with the supernatural realms.",
    "date": "c. 4700–2920 BCE",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.628",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Jade"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1953.628/1953.628_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1953.628/1953.628_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1953.628/1953.628_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "14.6 x 6 x 4.1 cm (5 3/4 x 2 3/8 x 1 5/8 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Northeast China, Neolithic period, probably Hongshan culture (4700–2920 BCE)"
    ],
    "accession": "1953.628"
}

{
    "tec": "jade (nephrite)",
    "tombstone": "Amulet in the Form of a Seated Figure with Bovine Head (牛首玉人), c. 4700–2920 BCE. Northeast China, Neolithic period, probably Hongshan culture (4700–2920 BCE). Jade (nephrite); 14.6 x 6 x 4.1 cm (5 3/4 x 2 3/8 x 1 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Severance A. Millikin, 1953.628",
    "titleInOriginalLanguage": "牛首玉人",
    "collection": "China - Neolithic",
    "inscriptions": [
        {
            "inscription": "There are two paper labels on the back of the jade pendant: one partial label with Chinese characters and one with the typed number \"150\".",
            "sortorder": 1
        }
    ],
    "didYouKnow": "CMA daringly acquired this masterpiece without knowing exactly what it was. Only after Chinese archaeologists started excavating similar jades in Northeast China could it be attributed to the Hongshan culture.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "\"Schamenendarstellungen,\" <em>Asia Major</em> 1, 1 (1944): p. 62."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lee, Sherman E. “More Early Chinese Jades.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>, vol. 41, no. 10, 1954, pp. 215–217.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 215-217; Reproduced: fig. 1 (line drawing)",
            "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141999"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Consten, Eleanor von Erdberg. <em>Das Alte China</em>. Stuttgart: G. Kilpper, 1958.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 78, 244; Reproduced: pl. 43"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Chinese Jad</em>e. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania [Museum], 1962.",
            "page_number": "no. 150"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Salmony, Alfred. <em>Chinese Jade; Through the Wei Dynasty</em>. New York: Ronald Press, 1963.",
            "page_number": "pp. 218–219, 227, pl. 35:4"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Chêng Tê-K'un. “Some Standing Jade Figurines of the Shang-Chou Period.” <em>Artibus Asiae</em>, vol. 28, no. 1, 1966, pp. 39–52.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 48–49; Reproduced: fig. 10",
            "url": "www.jstor.org/stable/3249315"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Hansford, S. Howard.<em> Chinese Carved Jades</em>. London: Faber, 1968.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: pp. 83–85, pl. 56"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Froncek, Thomas, and Hugh Honour. <em>The Horizon Book of the Arts of China</em>. New York: American Heritage Pub. Co, 1969.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 69"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Erickson, Ernest, Jan Wirgin, and Ulf Abel. <em>The Ernest Erickson collection in Swedish museums</em>. Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1989.",
            "page_number": "pp. 10–11"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Forsyth, Angus. \"Five Chinese Jade Figures: Study of the Development of Sculptural Form in Hongshan Neolithic Jade Working.\" <em>Orientations, </em>21, 5 (1990), pp. 54–63.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 60, figs. 8-8b"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Wilson, J. Keith, and Anne E. Wardwell. \"New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>81, no. 8 (1994): 270–347.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 275; Mentioned: pp. 275, 277, 346",
            "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161465"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. <em>Masterworks of Asian Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 22–23"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Chung, Anita. \"A Connoisseur's Eye, A Scholar's Mind: The Legacy of Sherman Lee.\" <em>Orientations </em>vol. 40, no. 5 (2009).",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 29, fig. 2"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. <em>Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 12–13"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.628",
    "creditline": "Gift of Severance A. Millikin",
    "updatedAt": "2026-06-17 11:19:43.841000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1953.628/1953.628_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 130939,
    "dept": "Chinese Art",
    "coll": "China - Neolithic",
    "med": "jade (nephrite)",
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1953.628/1953.628_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "c94b3fd78698ee3e"
}