The Evolution and Interpretation of Image Themes Based on Bird-Human Combination Jade Artifacts from Liangzhu, Longshan in Shandong, and Post-Shijiahe Cultures

This study focuses on ancient jade artifacts featuring human-bird combinations as the research subject, sorting out jade artifacts with this theme in different cultural contexts during the Neolithic Age along the timeline. The study found that typical human-bird-themed jade artifacts under Liangzhu, Shandong Longshan, and Shijiahe archaeological cultures all have distinctive characteristics. The relationship of the human-bird images exhibits an evolutional feature from specific combination to specific connection and then to abstract grafting. Through the study of the relationship between images and objects using iconography, comparison of contemporaneous objects with associated images, and interpretation and analysis of the cultural connotation of jade images from various cultural periods combining art theory and textual research, the following viewpoints are presented for different cultural contexts of human-bird combination images: (1) In Liangzhu culture human-bird combination jade artifacts, birds fly alongside humans and assist in guiding specific positions, symbolizing ancestor worship. (2) The typical Shandong Longshan culture jade ornament of a bird carrying a human head expresses the scene of the deity Di Jun's messenger, the five-coloured bird, leading the rise of the Longshan tribe leader. (3) In post-Shijiahe culture, the combination of abstract simplified birds and realistic human faces reflects the conceptual transition from "separation of humans and deities" in Shandong Longshan culture to "integration of humans and deities" in post-Shijiahe culture. Although the image composition relationship between birds and humans has changed in terms of position and priority, jade artifacts with human-bird themes in various archaeological cultures all express the implication of the bird as the carrier of sacredness, using birds to express the ascension of the soul and the holding of related mysterious rituals.