A large number of jade articles that have been excavated at the Neolithic Shijiahe site in Tianmen City, central China's Hubei Province showcase exquisite carving skills and distinctive regional characteristics.

The Shijiahe site is among the largest and most enduring prehistoric cities in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The site has seen the excavation of large sacrificial sites, exquisite jade articles and mass-produced red pottery cups.

The jade articles contain an array of elegant and vivid designs, including a jade pendant in a double-eagle shape with a tiger base, a jade phoenix and many jade tigers.

"The crawling, flaky tiger-shaped pendants were mostly found to be dating from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (1600 to 256 B.C.). But in recent years, tiger-shaped pendants have also been found among the Shijiahe jade articles, indicating that the jade articles from the Shijiahe culture have a profound influence on generations to come," said Chen Chun, a staff member from the Hubei Museum.

Jade figures also take a prominent position in the Shijiahe excavations. Some jade figures, with flaring eyes and ears, are highly similar to the bronze figures unearthed at the Sanxingdui site in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

"The jade figures all have big, diamond-shaped eyes, protruding ears and a bulbous nose. We can say that the Sanxingdui culture in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the prehistoric Shijiahe culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River share the same cultural inheritance and integration factors," said Fang Qiang, vice curator of the Tianmen Museum.