Painted God-Man Head Woodcarving
1 min readDimensions: 79 cm in total length, and 19.9 cm wide he artifact is made of a whole piece of wood in the shape of an ivory.
The god-man head was carved in the upper section of the piece, and painted in dark yellow, vermilion, yellow and black. The ferocious expression gives an air of authority. On the upper as a V-shape groove, in which was some black glutinous matter, possibly use to stick something inside the groove.
The lower section of the piece looks like a dagger, with three oval holes in the top. We assumed this part was inserted into something and the three holes might have been stringed to fix the woodcarving he image of this god-man head woodcarving is different from that of the god-man head jade, but they might lave had the same functions. What did they represent, an ancestor, a wizard or a god?
Why did the ancient Shu culture have such a unique present? In South Asia, quite a few stone and bronze god-in India. the gods were first and later bronze ones. Did the ancient Shu culture have any links question needs further study.
It is the first time that such a painted god-man head woodcarving of that historical period was found in China. As wood artifacts are extremely rare, this relic is quite valuable. Judging from the pottery vessels that were unearthed together with this woodcarving, they are assumed to belong to the Yin Ruins period.
