CCTV news: This morning (January 13), the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held a report meeting on archaeological discoveries in Tibet and reported the research results of four major archaeological discoveries in Tibet, including the Chezhe site, the Mahao site, the Gebu Sailu site and the Dangxiong cemetery. Among them, the Gebsairu site is a comprehensive site containing architecture and cemetery, dating from 3600 to 2100 years ago, with a long age span and rich cultural connotations. In particular, the glazed sand beads excavated from the site may have originated from Egypt, and this discovery initially shows that in the early Shang Dynasty, the Tibet region of China had exchanges and interactions with surrounding civilizations.
Located on the north bank of the Ali Xiangquan River in Tibet, the Gebuselaru site has undergone four years of archaeological excavations from 2017 to 2020, unearthing a large number of bronzes, pottery, agate beads and other cultural relics. More than 200 glazed sand beads have also been found at the site, which is particularly surprising to archaeologists.
Wen Rui, professor of the School of Cultural Heritage of Northwest University: We did not expect that this cemetery would unearth glazed sand, and this carbon-14 dating date is about 3600 years ago, which is roughly equivalent to the early Shang Dynasty, and is hundreds of years earlier than the Sanxingdui site we are familiar with. This is one of the earliest glazed sands we have unearthed in China.
Glazed sand beads are original forms of glass, made of quartz sand, alkali and limestone mixed together, fired into tires at 700-800 ° C, and finally fired after coating a layer of glaze on the surface, the production process is quite complicated. Wearing glazed sand beads into necklaces or even making tiles was an expensive artistic pursuit of the ancients.
Wen Rui, professor at the School of Cultural Heritage of Northwestern University: There will be some beads in the early tombs, but they are natural materials, such as agate beads, so the first question for our research on it (glazed sand beads) is where it came from.
According to experts, the analysis of composition and production process are two important dimensions for studying ceramics. At the same time, China's Xinjiang Tianshan region has also unearthed glazed sand beads, although the appearance of the two is similar, but the composition is different, which shows that they have different origins; then, archaeologists will turn their attention to South Asia, at the same time, South Asia is one of the production centers of glazed sand beads, but found that their production process is very different. Finally, archaeologists turned their attention to Egypt further afield.
Wen Rui, professor at the School of Cultural Heritage of Northwestern University: In the Egyptian region, whether it is in appearance, composition or production process, similar products can be found. Doesn't it have a thin layer of glaze on the outside? It is this vitreous substance, rich in sodium, we call it high sodium glaze sand, Egypt produces this high sodium glaze sand.
Egypt is an important origin of glazed sand products in the world, and glazed sand production has existed for more than 6,000 years. Despite the many similarities, the glazed sand beads at the Gebuselaru site in Tibet are still quite different in terms of quality and other aspects. Archaeologists comprehensively judged that the glazed sand beads at the Site of Gebu Sairu in Tibet are most likely produced in Egypt, but there are still transmission processes and transmission routes that are not yet understood by scholars from the Egyptian region to the Ali region of Tibet.
Source: CCTV