Ancient Chinese used diamond tools

[Astarho]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4555235.stm

Stone age craftsmen in China were polishing objects using diamond 2,000 years before anyone else had the same idea, new evidence suggests.

Quartz was previously thought to be the abrasive used to polish ceremonial axes in late stone age, or neolithic, China.

<snip>

The team used X-ray diffraction and electron microprobe analysis. This determined that the most abundant mineral in the axes was corundum, known as ruby in its red form and sapphire in all other colours.

The authors speculate that the use of diamond and corundum abrasives could be linked to an explosion in finely polished jade artefacts during the Chinese neolithic.

I think this is cool, but not really surprising. Anywhere where diamonds are somewhat prevalent, someone would probably use them for abrasives. The article is a few months old, but I'd love to see some followup on it.

If it turns out they were right about the Chinese using it on jade, it would not surprise me at all if they discovered similar techniques in ancient Mesoamerica.

[Maple]

1. The Chinese

did pretty much everything before us.

[psychopomp]

2. What do you mean, "us?" lol

If you mean before us "Americans," well, you would have a good chance of being correct since our nation is only two hundred some-odd years old. If you do not mean "Americans," then I really don't know who you think "we" are.

[Maple]

4. 'We' means

the western world...which consists of far more than the US.

[moggie]

7. Except invent the fork

Doh!

[Boomer]

8. There's a reason for that

Chopsticks are cheaper and easier to make than a fork. Just sharpen two sticks and start eating.

The Chinese were eating with chopsticks while Westerners were still stabbing at their meat with hunting knives and grubbing the rest of their food up with fingers.

So I'd say the Chinese win that comparison, too.

[Igel]

3. The area involved seems to be, at best, on the western

periphery of where "Chinese" would have been at the time. Now it's ethnically Chinese (Han, it seems), but that incursion seems to be following the rivers up towards the NW and interrupts an area of Mongolian linguistics/ethnic affinity.

I can't find anything on line as to the ethnic characterization of the time, but going back to 2500 BC pushes the limits of what's Chinese. The traditional first dynasty is a ways to the east of the province Wuwei (the current name for Liangzhao).

Usually archeologists, and, irritatingly, librarians, will use the current political designation of a territory, and project it back in time. And, when the political designation is also an ethnicity, it gets far too confusing.

[Astarho]

5. I've also seen Liangzhao spelled as Lianzhu.

The Liangzhu Jade Culture was based around the Yangtze River delta near Shanghai, which would seem to be an area that was ethnically Chinese. There were diamond deposits within 150 mi of the area, which they could have acquired.

[Igel]

6. Interesting.

Because there's a Liangzhao (now Wuwei) in Gansu province.

Having it further south makes sense; I wouldn't have expected the western areas to be heavy into producing much of anything 4500 years ago.

That far east would proably have been pre-Chinese. (I have trouble putting anything like like a real Chinese ethnicity that far back in time: it took a long time to create the current ethnic consciousness.)