Chinese Artifacts

[Sinopaleus]

for the past few days, i was at an ancient city of shanxi province, china, called ping yao. if you walk, you can cross the city within 45 minutes. that's just how small it is.

well, i obtained a few artifacts while i was at the city, doing some school projects at the same time.

this would be a brass(?) spear head, dating back to the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty of china. this spear head should be about 300 years old. it was dug up from a site up north of the city.

Left: an overall view of the spear head.

Middle Left: a close up on the back of the blade. there's an imprint there, possibly a lion.

Middle Right: a close up on the front of the blade. there's an imprint there, possibly a dragon.

Right: the bottom of the spear head, where there used to be a stick attached into it. the handle is in the shape of a lion.

Edited May 26, 2011 by fossil maniac

[Sinopaleus]

this would be a carving of a lion on jade, dated back to the Song Dynasty, and would be around 1,000 years old. (i sure hope they didnt steal these from ancient graves! )

Left: the right side of the lion. there is a hole, possibly made to hang onto people's waist bands or other clothing with a string.

Middle Left: a bird's eye view of the lion.

Middle Right: the left side view of the lion.

Right: the bottom view of the lion.

Edited May 26, 2011 by fossil maniac

[Sinopaleus]

this would be a jade thumb ring, passed down from generation to generation, starting from the Qing Dynasty. well, in the end, the descendant (shop keeper) sold it to me. and ill probably pass this on too.

Left: the side view of the ring. there are four primitive-chinese characters engraved in the ring.

Middle: the bird's eye view.

Right: you put the ring on like that. their hands are possibly larger than mine, which would explain why it was so spacey inside

[Sinopaleus]

last but not least, i have always seen these little things inside chinese traditional movies and video series. this was given to me as a gift, and this used to be a type of currency. it too, was passed down from generations to generations. it is made of pure silver, i think it's also from Qing Dynasty.

Left: the bird's eye view of the silver figure. there is a close-to-modern chinese character on it, but it might hold a different meaning from the one used now-a-days...

Middle Left: a few other characters are carved into the bottom. couldn't make out what they are.

Middle Right: the side view of the silver figure.

Right: the front view of the silver figure.

[astron]

Very nice artifacts and presentation, Henry Thanks for sharing

Impressive aswell, at least to me, that so old things can be found in market places

Hopefully your pocket is not exhausted

[MikeD]

Those are very nice!

[Sinopaleus]

thanks astrinos and mike!