CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

for binding the axe to the shaft; the blade itself is
broad and ends in a curved cutting edge. The decoration,
however, is unusual: a diminutive human
head flanked by a pair of animals, usually identified
as tigers. The meaning of this iconography is uncertain
and much debated: a number of parallels exist,
both on objects from Anyang (including the enormous
Si Mu Wu fangding) and others more widely
dispersed. 3 Most speculation identifies the head
as that of a "shaman," flanked by his "familiars" —
animals who aid him in his tasks; few examples of
these juxtaposed motifs are known, however,
and they seem a rickety foundation for any broad
theory for the interpretation of Shang iconography
generally. The mate to this axe features an altogether
different decoration — an animal mask with
bottle horns, flanked on either side by flattened
bodies. This said, it is worth remembering that the
two examples of the human face-and-tiger motif
from Anyang are both linked directly through inscriptions
on the objects to consorts of Wu Ding.
One must wonder whether the motif relates to the
status or identity of these consorts. RT
1 Yang and Yang 1986,128 -138.
2 Excavated in 1976 (M 5:799); reported: Zhongguo 1980,
105.
3 Chang 1983, 61 - 78, and Allan 1991,124 -170.
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