Posted on 08/14/2006 10:44:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Turn the clock back three millennia to Pinglin in Hualian. Here, a group of artisans are laboriously using jade axes to cut and shape jade, creating jade beads, jade rings and other jade objects. The jade itself and the items made from it were not only sold all over the island, but also exported. The story that, at the time, "three thousand years ago, Taiwan was the Jade Empire of Southeast Asia" has recently been gradually fleshed out through the work of archaeologists cooperating with scientists... Iizuka has worked with Hong Shaochun, a doctoral candidate at the National University of Australia's Department of Archaeology and Natural History, to establish the fact that many jade earrings and jewelry items found in the Philippines, south-central Vietnam and Malaysia's Sarawak came from jade shaped in Taiwan. This shows that some 3000 years ago, the people of Taiwan were already engaged in large-scale trade and exchange with the peoples of Southeast Asia.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.www.gov.tw ...
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
(Jade Axe)
Thanks. Coral is OK, but jade is nicer. ;')
Pretty, but it doesn't look terribly sharp.
Neolithic stone tools were not as sharp as their earlier paleolithic counterparts. The edges were ground, rather than flaked. While not as sharp, they were much more durable. Durability led to people keeping their tools much longer, and also led to much more specialization in tool production.
Thanks.
The basic purpose of an axe is to chop down trees; kinda hard to picture doing that with a terribly dull one.
Even harder to do it with one whose edge is so irregular and fragile that it breaks. A knapped stone blade used as an axe has a very irregular edge. This means that the forces are being applied unevenly along its edge on impact. They break. A lot.
Keep in mind that that pic is of an axe that is very old, ornate, and probably ornamental. Check some of the other axe heads on the other link that I posted. They are far more utilitarian. I picked that picture because it was pretty. It is jade, after all.
In one pic that I found by googling "jade axe" there was a long, thin, curved blade used for cutting sugar cane. I didn't use it because it was a really tiny pic.
Neolithic stone tools were very effecient, very durable, and were a vast improvement on paleolithic stone tools.
That Neo- vs Paleo- debate goes on here a lot. ;')
Are you a paleocon?
Ah. I was wondering what was going on... %-)
More of a Mesocon, so I just fit in nowhere. ;')
(ducking... I mean, I am really ducking...)
Seriously, I have an archaeology class coming up, and the WSU anthropology museum will be opened back up. It ain't bad (supposedly), so that's the best that I will be able to do for a while.
You should always duck if you suspect that there's something the mallard.
I understand, we lived in Elko, NV for several years and now live in Roseburg, OR. Likely, along with Pullman, better than cities to live in. College isn't terminal and travel is better than living in such places as -- shudder -- Chicago!!
I took a gander at it and just couldn't waddle away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
