The quality of workmanship, precious material, brittle nature, and abstract beauty of this blade all indicate that it was not made primarily as a utilitarian object, but as a ceremonial item, perhaps a symbol of authority, rather than a cutting tool. During Neolithic, or “new Stone Age,” times, tools were made of stones selected for their color, hardness, or ability to be polished.

Fashioned from an unidentified bluish gray stone, this extremely thin blade would have required great skill to cut from a rock. It might have been bound to a handle through the three equal-size and tapered holes, but the purpose of the two joined holes, drilled from the opposite side of the blade, is unknown.

In the 1940s, Eli Lilly, head of the pharmaceutical company founded by his grandfather Colonel Eli Lilly, became interested in Chinese art for what he called the “beautiful tranquility of spirit” it conveyed. He created one of the nation’s most comprehensive private collections, and his many gifts, including this blade, established Chinese art as one of the strengths of the IMA.

Noted archaeologist Kwang-chih Chang (1931–2001) identified the use of semi-lunar and rectangular stone blades as one of the twelve defining characteristics of the Chinese Neolithic cultural tradition.