Prehistoric trade in Fengtian nephrite jade
Comercio prehistórico de nefrita de Fengtian
- Date
- c. 2000 BCE-500 CE · confidence medium
- Place
- Fengtian, Shoufeng, Hualien, Taiwan
- Credited to
- Neolithic and Iron Age peoples of Taiwan
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Analyses of nephrite (jade) from Southeast Asian sites that link it to the Fengtian quarry on Taiwan's east coast, from where it was exported to the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Borneo. It is one of the longest prehistoric exchange networks in the western Pacific.
Hung et al. (PNAS, 2007) showed that Taiwanese jade circulated from c. 2000 BC and peaked around 500 BC-AD 500. A few jades in Vietnam and Thailand may come from other sources, and the chronology of the phases keeps being refined.
What it led to
- lingling-o ear pendants across the region
- Austronesian maritime networks and long-distance trade
- maps of prehistoric interaction between Taiwan and Southeast Asia