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- Amber Excavated at Chinese Archaeological Sites
Amber Bear, 2.2 cm, Han dynasty 206 BCE - 220 CE, excavated at Xuzhou, Jiangsu
The first mention of amber in Chinese texts occurred during the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE). However, a recent scientific archaeological excavation in China places the use of carved amber in China much earlier. The use of amber ornaments can now be dated back to the Shang dynasty (16th-11th century BCE), and there is a possibility that future excavations could push this date back even earlier. The archaeological dig, which yielded the earliest amber artifact in China, is the excavation of a late Shang tomb at Baodexian county in Shanxi province. The tomb con�tained a stringed neck ornament or necklace of amber. It is not known from where the amber
Amber Foreign Man Struggling with Lion,
Liao dynasty 907-1125, excavated in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
itself comes from, but it would most likely have been from a location within China.
A sizable number of amber ornaments, usually small beads or amulets, have been excavated from tombs of the Han dynasty in the Central Plain Area and the Jiangnan region. Unfortunately, many of the archaeologists who excavated these tombs and published their finds in China�s two major archaeological magazines - Kaogu and Wenwu, have either neglected to men- tion the amber finds or mentioned them but provided no description or illustration of them. The reason for this oversight may be because they were less familiar with the material, and its relative rarity may have seemed
Furthermore, tomb amber is often highly oxidized and can be brittle and crumbly, and thus less interesting.
One of the most outstanding early Han amber carvings is a 2.2 cm. high shiny, yellow coloured bear. The bear, which is well carved in the round, was excavated near the city of Xuzhou in Jiangsu province.
Amber Necklaces, Liao dynasty 907-1125, ft js n(ft known from where the
excavated in the inner Mongolian material for these Han carvings has
Autonomous Region. aiAA
insignificant to the other finds.
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