6,300-year-old axe-like scepter found in east China

NANJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Archaeologists have discovered a large stone "yue," an axe-like ceremonial artifact, in a 6,300-year-old tomb in east China's Jiangsu Province.

The artifact, believed to be the largest well-preserved prehistoric stone yue ever found in China, was recently unearthed from the Sanxingcun relic site in the city of Changzhou.

Yue is believed to have originated as a weapon but was later more commonly used in rituals as a ceremonial axe in the Bronze Age.

Measuring about 36 cm in width, the stone weapon features a large hole in its center and exhibits no traces of use. It was placed beside the head of the male owner of a tomb noticeably larger than others in the area.

"It suggests that over 6,000 years ago, some yue were no longer used as a tool and instead became a symbol of personal status or power," said Li Moran, a researcher with the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who led the site's excavation.

The tomb owner was also interred with a stone cauldron, a stone knife and more than 20 lower jawbones of domestic pigs, while another stone yue was placed beside his waist.

"The use of stone yue as a scepter and ritual object indicates that the population had started to stratify," Li said, adding that the discovery benefits the study of China's earliest power structure and its evolution.

First unearthed in 1993, the Neolithic site of Sanxingcun has seen the discovery of many bone artifacts, stone tools and jadeware in the latest round of excavation starting in April 2023.