TY - JOUR
T1 - Ancient jades map 3,000 years of prehistoric exchange in Southeast Asia
AU - Hung, Hsiao Chun
AU - Iizuka, Yoshiyuki
AU - Bellwood, Peter
AU - Kim, Dung Nguyen
AU - Bellina, Bérénice
AU - Silapanth, Praon
AU - Dizon, Eusebio
AU - Santiago, Rey
AU - Datan, Ipoi
AU - Manton, Jonathan H.
PY - 2007/12/11
Y1 - 2007/12/11
N2 - We have used electron probe microanalysis to examine Southeast Asian nephrite (jade) artifacts, many archeologically excavated, dating from 3000 B.C. through the first millennium A.D. The research has revealed the existence of one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world. Green nephrite from a source in eastern Taiwan was used to make two very specific forms of ear pendant that were distributed, between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D., through the Philippines, East Malaysia, southern Vietnam, and peninsular Thailand, forming a 3,000-km-diameter halo around the southern and eastern coastlines of the South China Sea. Other Taiwan nephrite artifacts, especially beads and bracelets, were distributed earlier during Neolithic times throughout Taiwan and from Taiwan into the Philippines.
AB - We have used electron probe microanalysis to examine Southeast Asian nephrite (jade) artifacts, many archeologically excavated, dating from 3000 B.C. through the first millennium A.D. The research has revealed the existence of one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world. Green nephrite from a source in eastern Taiwan was used to make two very specific forms of ear pendant that were distributed, between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D., through the Philippines, East Malaysia, southern Vietnam, and peninsular Thailand, forming a 3,000-km-diameter halo around the southern and eastern coastlines of the South China Sea. Other Taiwan nephrite artifacts, especially beads and bracelets, were distributed earlier during Neolithic times throughout Taiwan and from Taiwan into the Philippines.
KW - Austronesian languages
KW - Electron probe microanalysis
KW - Nephrite trade
KW - Southeast Asian archaeology
KW - Taiwan
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38049148295&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.0707304104
DO - 10.1073/pnas.0707304104
M3 - Article
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 104
SP - 19745
EP - 19750
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 50
ER -