Modern technology is very advanced - many people think. However, according to Dr. Peter J. Lu, a research fellow at Harvard University, the Chinese people as early as 4500 BC. e. knew how to polish surfaces to such an extent even and smoothly, which we cannot do at present even with the best technologies in the field of polishing various materials.
Dr. Lu, who worked with his team to research four ancient Chinese axes discovered in the 90s, has a good knowledge of polishing various products. The researcher presented artifacts from the Neolithic period. Through a series of scientific tests, he concluded that these pieces may have been made using advanced technology using diamond.
Four ceremonial axes were made between 2500 and 4500. BC. and belongs to the Sanxingcun and Liangzhu cultures. Although it was initially believed that the material used to make the grinders was quartz, Lu's team showed that this was a flawed theory.
Ceremonial axes were presented for ultrasound, radiographic diffraction, and examination using an electron microscope. It was found that 40 percent of the artifacts were from corundum, a rock known as ruby red.
Corundum is also well known as the second hardest material on the planet. The delicate work of polishing the artifacts could only be achieved by using one material that is harder than corundum, and that is diamond, which was previously believed to have been first used in 500 BC. in India.
To confirm the hypothesis, Lu took samples from the artifacts and used modern machines with diamonds, albumin and silica to polish them.
To the astonishment of the scientists, the electron microscope confirmed that the polishing to which the axes were subjected was done using only one diamond. In fact, the work of artisans, which was carried out with axes many centuries before our era, was more skillful than the work of modern precision instruments.
From the study of these ceremonial axes, scholars now have a deeper understanding of the polishing techniques of antiquity, making it possible to explain the abundance of fine carvings on items made of materials such as jade.
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However, many questions still exist regarding how the Chinese "cavemen" could have made the best and smoothest axes ever known in history.