Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Jade Dragon Artifact at a 5,000-Year-Old Tomb in China

Archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year-old jade dragon artifact while excavating a burial mound in northeastern China.

The object measures roughly six inches long, four inches wide and one inch thick—making it the “largest jade dragon ever discovered from the Hongshan culture,” according to the official state news agency Xinhua.

The dig site is located in the city of Chifeng in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in China. The burial mound—which includes a circular tomb situated north of a square altar—is between 5,000 and 5,100 years old.

It was built by the Hongshan culture, a large Neolithic group known for its delicately carved objects that prospered in the region. Experts think that Hongshan craftsmen made some of the earliest known jade artifacts in history.

In April, researchers began a four-month excavation at the site, as Archaeology News’ Dario Radley reports. They have since uncovered human remains, fire pits, an assortment of pottery and more than 100 jade objects.

The scientists were particularly intrigued by the jade dragon, which they say is noteworthy for its size. However, not all researchers are impressed with the newly discovered artifact.

While the jade dragon is “very nice,” it’s also “not that unique,” Gideon Shelach-Lavi, a scholar of East Asian studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, tells Live Science’s Owen Jarus.

Shelach-Lavi, who has excavated in the area but was not involved in the recent dig, says that similar jade dragon artifacts have been unearthed at other tombs from the Hongshan culture. What’s more, historians can’t say for sure that they were crafted to resemble dragons.

“We do not really know what their meaning was during the Neolithic period, so calling them ‘dragons’ is anachronistic,” he adds.

Still, officials say that the objects are shedding new light on the history of Neolithic groups in the region.

“This is the largest stone burial mound from the late Hongshan culture ever found in Inner Mongolia,” said Sun Jinsong, the director of the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, at a press conference, per Archaeology News. “The variety of jade artifacts discovered fills important gaps in our understanding of this ancient civilization’s jade usage.”

Research at the site, which includes radiocarbon dating and topographic mapping, is still ongoing.

A ritual complex with a similar layout was previously discovered at a site called Niuheliang, located about 90 miles from Chifeng, as Jia Xiaobing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology, tells China Daily’s Fang Aiqing and Yuan Hui.

“Such consistency in an expanded area proves that a shared belief system existed among the Hongshan ancestors,” he says.

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Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.