Chinese archaeologists find 5,000-year-old jade processing base

Ten jade processing workshops that date back around 5,000 years have been unearthed in China, providing key research materials for studying the origin of Chinese civilization.

The scale of the 10 workshops, excavated in the Huangshan ruins in Nanyang, a city in the central province of Henan, can be counted as a large jade processing base, according to Chinese archaeologists.

The discovery fills in the blank of the jade workshop remains in the Neolithic Age in the central plains and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, said Ma Juncai, leader of the excavation project under the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology.

It provides key materials for the study of Chinese civilization at the vital time of around 5,000 years ago in the key region of cultural exchange and collision between the north and the south, according to Ma.

A large number of stone tools including drills and carving knives, as well as potteries and bone ware were unearthed at the excavation site. "This revealed that the ruins were a large-scale, professional jade production base", Ma said.

The archaeologists also discovered more than 90 tombs of jade worker families. "Over 400 pieces of lower jawbones of pigs, two pieces of tomahawk-like jade ware and a longbow decorated with ivory were found in a tomb, which is a rare discovery", Ma added.

Three well-preserved workshops can be traced back to the period of Yangshao Culture, among which two workshops each cover more than 120 square meters with a large and complicated structure.

The jade materials, semi-finished and finished jade articles, and jade-processing tools unearthed at the location demonstrate the jade processing steps and provide an important basis for studying the social structure and economic activities at that time, said Ma.