The Chinese are a very ancient civilization. There are many mysteries in it, one of which is the famous jade discs discovered by archaeologists in huge quantities. Researchers believe that the Chinese began to make such artifacts as early as 5000 BC.
Just imagine - it was over 7000 years ago. And until now, none of the scientists have answered the question of what they were intended for. But the purpose of the disks is a separate conversation.
Much more interesting is how they were made, because jade is one of the strongest stones in the world. Nowadays, it is actively used for the production of expensive ceramics and jewelry. You probably think that jade is green (more precisely, emerald)?
Alas, this is not so - initially a natural stone is almost colorless, and the impurity of chromium and other chemicals gives it the desired shade. Jade is famous for its hardness.
Even now, handling it is quite difficult. But how were the ancient Chinese able to process it? This is another mystery for archaeologists.
These jade discs also have another name - "bi discs". They are figures in the form of flat rings, in the center of which you can sometimes see a hole.
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Archaeologists believe that most of these discs belong to the Liangzhu culture. Official science just shrugs its shoulders and claims that the discs had exclusively religious and cult significance, and could be used by the Chinese in various sacraments and rituals.
If you believe the official science, then the Chinese were some kind of crazy - for the sake of some rituals they began to process such a durable material. In addition, it is not known how they learned about jade and its outstanding properties.
Taking the words of official science seriously, you begin to think that the whole ancient world was inhabited by some crazy people - they built pyramids in order to bury people in them, then they made jade discs for their rituals.
Not the ancient world, but some kind of madhouse turns out. Interestingly, most of these discs were found in the burial grounds and burials of noble people of that time. For some reason, the Chinese put them in the area of the stomach of the deceased.
Some researchers believe that such discs opened the entrance to the afterlife, so that the soul of the deceased could calmly leave the material world. Unfortunately, archaeologists have not been able to find even a hint of those ancient tools with which the Chinese carried out processing of jade.
It would be interesting to look at them, especially considering that these discs are made of such high quality that it seems as if they were made on some kind of lathe and in huge quantities.
But here it is already necessary to look for traces of an ancient plant or factory.
And if you believe the official science, which claims that such discs were made exclusively with the help of a hand tool, then we can assume that the processing of one such artifact took a huge amount of time.
The question is - why did the Chinese have to spend so much of their time producing thousands of similar products?