X-Ray Pig

ca. 4,000 BC
Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou

This artifact displays a skeletal "x-ray" design that is also familiar to archaeologists in Africa, Australia, and Europe, having apparently been reinvented time and time again; the non-realism of these incised patterns has suggested, to some, a connection with trance shamanism. The second eye, in the middle of the pig's body, is hard to understand but seems to define a superimposed face.

The Zhejiang Provincial Museum is located on the north shore of Hangzhou's West Lake.