Image courtesy of Xinhua

 

Gideon Shelach-Lavi, a past fellow of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies and a member of the "Animals and Human Society in the Sinitic World" research group, recently commented on a remarkable archaeological find in China—a 5,000-year-old jade artifact in the shape of a “dragon,” discovered in a tomb belonging to the ancient Hongshan culture.

The jade artifact, measuring 6.2 inches long by 3.7 inches wide, was unearthed in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Found within a circular tomb adjacent to a square altar, the artifact was accompanied by human remains and various pottery items, including cups, basins, and tripod pots. The tomb, estimated to date back 5,000 to 5,100 years, reflects the Hongshan culture’s tradition of creating intricate artifacts and constructing large settlements.

While this jade "dragon" is the largest of its kind attributed to the Hongshan culture, Professor Shelach-Lavi emphasized that similar artifacts have been discovered at other sites. He cautioned against viewing these jade objects as definitive representations of dragons, noting, "We do not really know what their meaning was during the Neolithic period, so calling them 'dragons' is anachronistic." Instead, he suggested that their form may have held a different, now obscure, symbolic or ritualistic significance in Hongshan society.

The discovery site, according to Shelach-Lavi, is more than a simple burial ground. He described it as a "ritualistic structure" that includes graves of selected individuals. This finding aligns with previous research at another Hongshan site, Niuheliang, where similar structures have been unearthed, further underscoring the cultural and ritual complexity of the Hongshan people.

The full Article is available here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-discover-myster...