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Although it is impossible for us to determine the range of chemical variation for every nephrite source in the Asia—Pacific region, given that the locations of many are completely unknown, we feel justified in claiming a very high level of confidence from the matrix and inclusion analyses reported here that the Fengtian nephrite has been reliably characterized.
Although not the main focus of this article, nephrite adzes, bracelets, bell-shaped beads, and tubular beads are widespread in both Taiwan and the Philippines. Many of these come from Neolithic contexts within Taiwan. Those from Philippine contexts are similar to specimens in Taiwan, and all analyses so far have traced their nephrite to Fengtian.
For instance, a Fengtian nephrite bracelet from Nagsabaran, northern Luzon, dated between and B. Possibly, some of the Neolithic green jade items found in the Philippines were transported as finished goods from Taiwan during this earlier phase. This has recently been determined from three separate archaeological assemblages Sunget, Anaro, and Savidug—see Fig. During this time, the ear pendants described above appeared in an extensive region of Southeast Asia, although only one has so far been found in Taiwan itself—a three-pointed lingling-o from Jiuxianglan in southeastern Taiwan.
This scenario is supported by a presence of slate cutting tools and pieces of worked Fengtian nephrite, including drilled-out cores, annular rings, rectangular cut pieces and recycled artifacts, in several Iron Age habitation sites in Southeast Asia. These cut nephrite fragments often indicate that lingling-o or animal-headed ear pendants were being made locally by using Fengtian nephrite blanks.
Where were the blanks initially manufactured? The Pinglin workshop in eastern Taiwan, located close to the Fengtian nephrite deposit, was regarded by Kano as the largest ancient jade workshop in Southeast Asia It has very large surface quantities of grooved and drilled jade discards, including drilled-out cores and incomplete or deficient ornaments and tools Fig.
The Pinglin workshop might have been a major producer of the jade blanks found in Taiwan and the Philippines, but no complete three-pointed lingling-o or animal-headed pendants have ever been found there. The sites that contain manufacturing fragments that appear to be from three-pointed lingling-o ear pendants, or closely related forms, are Youzihu on Ludao Island and the Lanyu High School site on Lanyu Island, both off southeastern Taiwan, Anaro on Itbayat Island and Savidug on Sabtang Island Batanes , and sites in Batangas Province in southern Luzon.
From Khao Sam Kaeo in peninsular Thailand, there is at least one recycled Taiwan Neolithic adze that was being worked into an animal-headed pendant when discarded SI Table 1. These distributions are consistent with a multilocal manufacture of these ear pendants, despite the raw material origin from Fengtian.
Recently, cut Fengtian nephrite fragments, some interpreted as discards from the manufacture of lingling-o earrings, have been excavated in layers dated between B. Anaro is the most important workshop found so far in the Philippines because it illustrates the full reduction sequence for making these artifacts Fig.
Slate knives, both rectangular and pointed, the latter reworked from Taiwan slate projectile points, were found here with the nephrite fragments. Slate is common in the central mountain range of Taiwan but absent in volcanic and raised coral landscapes such as the Batanes and Babuyan Islands and Luzon. This indicates that these slate tools were also imported from Taiwan, where such knives and points are very common. At Anaro, they were used for grooving the nephrite before snapping, as in the Pinglin workshop in Taiwan.
Experimental archaeology indicates that jade manufacture required not only high levels of skill, but also considerable labor input. For example, 8 hours of sawing using a stone knife and sand will cut a groove only mm deep, and 1 hour of drilling using a hollow bamboo with sand and water will cut only 10 mm below the surface So far, no iron tools that can be associated with nephrite working have been identified in Southeast Asia.
We suggest that the ear pendants of Fengtian nephrite in Southeast Asia outside Taiwan were made by a small number of highly skilled and perhaps itinerant jade craftsmen using stone cutting tools and perhaps bamboo drills. The most extensive evidence for such trade postdates B. In general, the quantity of Fengtian nephrite decreases with distance from the source, with sites on the eastern coast of Taiwan having the highest quantities Fig.
However, the combined distributions of the two kinds of ear pendant discussed here do not follow this trend and, instead, correspond closely with the distributions of many important but very far-flung Austronesian-speaking populations in early history e. For instance, although northern Vietnam is closer to Taiwan than southern Vietnam, positively identified artifacts of Taiwan nephrite have never been found there.
All come from Sa Huynh sites B. The Sa Huynh culture is regarded as ancestral to the Chamic-speaking Austronesian ethnic groups of central and southern Vietnam in historical times, whereas the Dong Son of northern Vietnam is geographically associated with Tai and Mon-Khmer Austroasiatic, including Vietnamese speaking groups It is thus interesting to note that the site of Khao Sam Kaeo in peninsular Thailand, which does have Fengtian nephrite, is located in a Thai-speaking area today.
However, in addition to Taiwan nephrite, it has also yielded pieces of worked mica similar in chemistry to mica from Mindoro Island in the Philippines. This sourcing study of ancient Fengtian jade has revealed a remarkable pattern of pre-Indic communication across a vast area of mainland and island Southeast Asia. However, we freely admit that this sourcing study of ancient jade in Southeast Asia has only just begun; both Vietnam and the Philippines, in particular, have other nephrite sources of unknown location that were exploited in prehistory, and it is possible that some of these materials were also traded over long distances.
Indeed, one nephrite lingling-o with three projections from the Sa Huynh culture site of Go Dua in central Vietnam Fig. We are now extending our research to try to identify the several different nephrite sources in Vietnam that were also used for manufacturing many of the lingling-o and animal-headed pendants found on the Asian mainland. We thank the following for supporting this study: The analyzed artifacts come from the collections of the following institutions, all thanked for their cooperation: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Both jadeitite and nephrite occur in metamorphic rocks, but their chemical compositions are different.
In the s, American archaeologist H. Otley Beyer noted that some of the jade ear pendants he encountered in the Batangas area were similar in shape to the metal pendants worn ethnographically by the Ifugao, Bontoc, and Kalinga peoples in the Northern Luzon Cordillera region, who termed them lingling-o. The term is now used widely to refer to a general class of earrings with projections, but in this article, with Fox 3 , we refer only to the specific three-pointed form in jade. This article contains supporting information online at www. Manton, Departments of a Archaeology and Natural History and.
National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Published online Nov Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer.
The name “jade” refers to two different stones, nephrite and jadeite, . Or, sometimes, it is the desire to possess an old, possibly even “ancient” artifact of China. So dating jade still relies mainly on art-historical methods and. 'Someone who likes a translucent white jade vase dating to the Qing dynasty might not be drawn to a Neolithic axe blade, such as the beautiful.
Edited by Robert D. Received Aug 3. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract We have used electron probe microanalysis to examine Southeast Asian nephrite jade artifacts, many archeologically excavated, dating from B.
Release date crusader kings ii: To translate the western zhou dongyu acted as evidence of. However, in addition to Taiwan nephrite, it has also yielded pieces of worked mica similar in chemistry to mica from Mindoro Island in the Philippines. Natural stones passed off as jade include chrysoprase, jasper, serpentine and soapstone. About 90 percent of the worlds jadeite comes from Myanmar. Stones similar to jade but not jade itself were used in ceremonies. Liu Shen was buried with his consort who was equally well clad in a jade suit.
Austronesian languages, electron probe microanalysis, nephrite trade, Southeast Asian archaeology, Taiwan. Open in a separate window. Results This article focuses on the three-pointed lingling-o and animal-headed pendants see SI Text. Supplementary Material Supporting Information: Click here to view.
Acknowledgments We thank the following for supporting this study: Footnotes The authors declare no conflict of interest. Contributor Information Jonathan H. J Hong Kong Archaeol Soc. Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago.
Univ of Hawaii Press; Early Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia. Bellina B, Glover I. From Prehistory to History. Glover I, Bellwood P, editors. National Research Council of the Philippines; Asia's Maritime Bead Trade: Precious artifacts such as jade tablets and gold foil have been found in the excavation of the ruins, which date back to more than 3, years,. Completely replaced jade and bronze for the manufacture of artifacts which were 7 the section on ancient gold is excellent but out-of-date in noel barnard and.
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