A 4,500-year-old ritual ax was found in China

In the Chinese city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province, archaeologists found a 4,500-year-old ritual weapon decorated with engravings during excavations. This is the first and most significant discovery of this region.

This is reported by Heritage Daily.

Scientists have determined that the found weapon belongs to the Liangzhu culture (3300 BC), which was one of the most advanced Chinese cultures of the Neolithic period.

The capital of Liangzhu was a pan-regional urban center that was discovered in 1936.

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It is known that during that period, weather changes and severe floods significantly worsened the living conditions of the local population: the area was low-lying and therefore quickly flooded. According to scholarly research, the people of Liangzhu were forced to leave their homes on the Taihu Plain, which eventually led to the downfall of the Liangzhu civilization in 2300 BC.

In addition to the 4,500-year-old stone ax with engravings of birds and clouds, which was the most significant discovery, archaeologists also found 329 stone tools at the Dingen archaeological site in Wuxi. In addition, 73 stone and bone arrowheads and many ceramic and jade artifacts were excavated.

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A worn and damaged ritual weapon was found on the sacrificial platform, which may indicate that the ax was used during ceremonies for a ritual purpose rather than for combat.

Liu Baoshan, head of the Wuxi Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, emphasized that the ornaments on the weapons were made with a harder stone tool. In addition, the ax is the first example of a weapon with a tiger pattern found in the region.

We will remind you, planetary scientists determined that more than 3 billion years ago, Mars collided with an asteroid, which caused a tsunami with a height of 200 meters, which formed a crater with a diameter of 110 kilometers.

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