Mysterious ancient discs made from nephrite jade discovered in China (2005) are raising scientific eyebrows in China and elsewhere. Among the earliest surviving Chinese artifacts, the discs are called ‘Bi’ and have been associated by some scholars with the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century B.C.); however, they may be much older, representing neolithic art from 6000 to 2000 B.C. Showing clear evidence of advanced precision tooling, though, the ‘Bi’ discs present scientists with an unexplainable anomaly.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine how they could have been made with the primitive stone tools and abrasives usually associated with the period. The original function and significance of the bi are unknown, as the Neolithic cultures have left no written history.
From these earliest times they were buried with the dead, as a sky symbol, accompanying the dead into the after world or "sky", with the cong which connected the body with the earth.They were placed ceremonially on the body in the grave of persons of high social status.
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