Personal weapons and tools, generally of small scale, were common objects among the sedentary people living in northeastern China from the ninth through seventh century B.C. Knives were especially popular and were often decorated with geometric motifs, such as the zigzag pattern on one side of this example, or with images of wild animals, such as the four horned beasts aligned on the other. This knife is further embellished with a realistically rendered human face at the top.

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