Pig dragon

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A pig dragon or zhulong (Chinese 猪龍) is a type of jade artifact from neolithic China. Zhulong are zoomorphic forms with a piglike head and elongated limbless body coiled around to the head in the manner of an ouroboros. Early pig dragons are thick and stubby - later examples have more graceful, snakelike bodies, while the head becomes less piglike.

Pig dragons were produced by the Hongshan culture, and often featured as grave goods. For example see [1]. Pig bones have been found interred alongside humans at Hongshan burial sites, suggesting the animal had some ritual significance.

It has been speculated that the pig dragon is the first representation of the Chinese dragon. The character for "dragon" in the earliest Chinese writing has a similar coiled form, as do later jade dragon amulets from the Shang period.