Detection of 4,500-year-old divination instrument in China

A Chinese archaeologist said yesterday that a turtle made of 4,500-year-old jade and a jade-shaped object discovered in Anhui Province, China, is the oldest divination instrument ever discovered. up to now.

Trigrams are often used by Chinese in divination.

These two jade objects were discovered in an ancient tomb in Lingjiatan village, Hanshan county, Anhui province.

Gu Fang, a jade expert from the Chinese Cultural Heritage Association, said the turtle is made of jade including turtle shell and turtle belly, there are several holes on it. The oblong-shaped object, 8.2 cm wide and 11 cm long, is found between the abdomen and the turtle shell. There are also some broken lines on this item.

" They are obviously not things in everyday life, nor are they decorations, but they are tools used in superstition ," Gu said.

The holes between the turtle shell and the abdomen showed that something was inserted. And maybe there are wires through the holes. "It reminds us of dice. Only when the string is removed, the state of the object inside the turtle can be seen," Gu said.

Archaeologists believe that this jade turtle is an ancient tool used to predict the future, done before important events.

In the Shang Dynasty, about 1,000 years after the birth of Lingjiatan village tombs, the use of turtles to divination was a common activity, to predict auspicious, bad omen.

The lines on the oblong object also attracted the attention of archaeologists. Many experts believe that this model may be the source of the trigram, still used by ancient Chinese in divination.

MT (Xinhua News Agency)