The residual geological information in Liangzhu jades: Implications for their provenance

Abstract

Liangzhu Culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River is world-famous for a large number of exquisite jade artifacts, but the provenance of nephrite materials has been a considerable controversy over the past several decades. Our research briefly summarizes evolutionary stages of unearthed nephrite artifacts, discusses a number of jades' secondary changes in the burial stage and then attempts to compare typical characteristics of Liangzhu jades with those of some nephrites within East Asia. The results show that although the weathering has obliterated some original information of Liangzhu jades, their residual information is still highly consistent with many aspects of Xiaomeiling nephrite, such as the mineral compositions, crystal morphology, textures of rocks and chemical compositions. These coincidences not only support that Xiaomeiling nephrite is one significant provenance of nephrites used by Liangzhu ancestors, but also reveal the hierarchical assignment system of Liangzhu Culture where Yuhang settlements dominate the allocation of jade resources. The distinct difference between different jade workshops in processing materials demonstrates convincingly that Liangzhu ancestors have been able to effectively identify some jade materials and a division of labor in the processing of jade artifacts has arisen, all of which support that Liangzhu Culture is a highly developed native civilization.