The graves they left behind now function like time capsules, providing insight into the dynamic character of ancient Chinese civilization during life and after death. These Stone Age people flourished in a large, fertile region between the modern cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Nanjing. Many came from the prehistoric burials of the Liangzhu culture (circa 3300–2250 BCE). Today we know these jades represent the earliest epochs of Chinese civilization, the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. With the advent of archaeology came a better appreciation of the evolution of ancient Chinese mortuary culture and China’s art history. They once occurred as far north as Anyang, Henan. Long thought to belong to an extinct subspecies of the Asian elephant named Elephas maximus rubridens, they lived in Central and Southern China before the 14th century BC. Historical records show that this unique script was used as early as the 7th century, during the early Tang Dynasty, however, research conducted last year showed that its. The existence of elephants in ancient China is attested both by archaeological evidence and by depictions in Chinese artwork. The modern science of archaeology was not practiced in China until 1928, when the Smithsonian sponsored its introduction. The Dongba symbols are an ancient system of pictographic glyphs created by the founder of the Bn religious tradition of Tibet and used by the Naxi people in southern China. When Charles Lang Freer acquired many of them, their precise age was unknown. Buried in these tombs for thousands of years were jewelry and ritual objects, all laboriously crafted from jade. A construction boom in China more than a century ago resulted in new railways and factories-and the accidental discovery of scores of rich ancient cemeteries.
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