Chueh Ornaments Hsing-lung-wa Culture, Neolithic Age (ca. 6000 BC) Jade, diameter: 4.6 and 3.7 cm Collection: Lin-hsi County Museum (Ch'ih-feng, Inner Mongolia)

     Made of polished greenish and greyish-green jade, these are two circular ring forms with slits, known in jade terminology as "chueh". For the ancient peoples of China, it was used as a form of ornament or as a ritual object. These are the earliest such pieces that have been found in Inner Mongolia.