Chinese jade dagger blade

An image of Dagger. This unusual large jade ge blade and a short but wide tang with traces of cinnabar. The edge and surface of this halberd has calcified. The tang with rows of parallel ridged grooves, a form of decoration derived from the pattern of metal sections seen on Erlitou bronze blades. A large hole on the blade and another smaller one on the tang, were drilled from the same side. The unfinished carved line on this halberd, particularly the triangular shape in the middle, suggests that it was in the process of being altered into a different object. Large halberds such as this one are very unusual Shang tomb objects and might have appeared near the chest of the deceased. Nephrite, length 32 cm, width 18.2 cm, 1600-1050 B.C. Chinese.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Dagger. This unusual large jade ge blade and a short but wide tang with traces of cinnabar. The edge and surface of this halberd has calcified. The tang with rows of parallel ridged grooves, a form of decoration derived from the pattern of metal sections seen on Erlitou bronze blades. A large hole on the blade and another smaller one on the tang, were drilled from the same side. The unfinished carved line on this halberd, particularly the triangular shape in the middle, suggests that it was in the process of being altered into a different object. Large halberds such as this one are very unusual Shang tomb objects and might have appeared near the chest of the deceased. Nephrite, length 32 cm, width 18.2 cm, 1600-1050 B.C. Chinese.

Image data

Accession Number: O.21-1946
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/25.0
Focal length: 50
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Photographer name: Michael Jones
Image height: 681 pixels
Image width: 1023 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 85.69kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 25/1
Captured: 2007:11:16 17:25:14

Key words

BC blade carved ceremonial ceremonies Chinese dagger edged weapon Fitz_AA halberd jade nephrite weapon

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            " Chinese jade dagger blade"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-2819785938 Accessed: 2024-11-25 07:16:22

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-2819785938
            |title= Chinese jade dagger blade
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-25 07:16:22|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-207284

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa37/large_O_21_1946_1_200711_mfj22_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Dagger"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info"> Chinese jade dagger blade</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>