Chinese Used Diamonds To Polish Sapphire-Rich Stone In 2500 BC

Eureka Alert/Harvard University ^ | 2-11-2005 | Steve Bradt

[blam]

Public Release: 11-Feb-2005
Archaeometry

Chinese used diamonds to polish sapphire-rich stone in 2500 BC

Researchers have uncovered strong evidence that the ancient Chinese used diamonds to grind and polish ceremonial stone burial axes as long as 6,000 years ago -– and incredibly, did so with a level of skill difficult to achieve even with modern polishing techniques. The finding, reported in the February issue of the journal Archaeometry, places this earliest known use of diamond worldwide thousands of years earlier than the gem is known to have been used elsewhere. Harvard University's Asia Center, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Princeton University's Department of Physics

Contact: Steve Bradt steve_bradt@harvard.edu 617-496-8070 Harvard University

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[truth_seeker]

Does this agree perfectly with dates and events in the Bible?

[hoot2]

"...did so with a level of skill difficult to achieve even with modern polishing techniques"

This is why their telescopes are far superior...
Modern man just can't do anything as well as the "ancients"

[Born to Conserve]

And then their culture stagnated for the next 4500 years.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

possibly of interest:

World's oldest telescope?
by Dr David Whitehouse
Thursday, July 1, 1999

According to Professor Giovanni Pettinato of the University of Rome, a rock crystal lens, currently on show in the British museum, could rewrite the history of science. He believes that it could explain why the ancient Assyrians knew so much about astronomy. It is a theory many scientists might be prepared to accept, but the idea that the rock crystal was part of a telescope is something else. To get from a lens to a telescope, they say, is an enormous leap. Professor Pettinato counters by asking for an explanation of how the ancient Assyrians regarded the planet Saturn as a god surrounded by a ring of serpents?

[NationSoConceived]

And then their culture stagnated for the next 4500 years.

It might interest some to point out that that Chinese culture has really only "stagnated" for the past 500 years or so. The interesting part is that this coincides with the imperial decision to seal China, allowing neither foreigners in nor exploration outwards.