Grand Bronze Yue (Executioner’s Axe) with Openwork Teeth. Weighing a crushing 11.4 kg, this fanged ceremonial axe served as the very jaws of the Gods—wielded by Shang rulers to decapitate the defeated and feed their lives to the Heavens. China, c. 1200 BC [1900×1988]
by AffectionateWing4467
3 Comments
Where is this currently located? I’m putting in my must-go-museum list….1200BC is essentially mythical era (Trojan War) era in the west…
The Shang were vicious. Earlier today I was reading an article about excavations with children cut in half, with parts missing, and so on. Artisans made pretty ornaments with human bones. Nasty.
This is the [雲紋青銅鉞](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%95%86%E4%BB%A3%E4%BA%91%E7%BA%B9%E9%9D%92%E9%93%9C%E9%92%BA/14351538) ([Cloud Motif](https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E9%9B%B2%E9%9B%B7%E7%B4%8B) Bronze Yue). Discovered at the [Dayangzhou site](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayangzhou_site) in 1989.