Author(s)

Cheng Xue¹, Yingzhi Xu²

¹School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi’an, China.
²School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.

The jade dagger-axe is a significant ritual artifact in prehistoric China and therefore has been the subject of much discussion among archaeologists and historians. The authors compare the jade dagger-axe and the axe in terms of the morphological features, the means of hafting, and the use in burial ritual. It appears that the shape of the jade dagger-axe is the result of improving the axe. The means of hafting the jade dagger-axe is generally identical to that of the axe. The ritualization of the jade dagger-axe follows that of the axe. Therefore, the jade dagger-axe may have originated from the axe.

Jade Dagger-Axe, Axe, Morphological Feature, Tying Means, Burial Ritual

Xue, C. and Xu, Y. (2017) On the Origin of Early Jade Dagger-Axe: A Brief Analysis. Archaeological Discovery, 5, 178-186. doi: 10.4236/ad.2017.53011.