Emerging Cicadas May Be Creepy To Some, But They've Long Been Revered In Chinese Art

Album Leaf of Flowers and Insects, bequest of the Hofer Collection of the Arts of Asia, 1985.904.6

The insects' appearances stretch back 4,000 years, to a time when ancient settlers carved cicadas from jade and put them on tongues of the dead before burial, evoking transcendence and eternal life.

(Image credit: Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College/Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum)



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