Exploration on the Technical Methods for Tracing the Material Origin of Prehistoric Jade Artifacts in China

This article conducted extensive research on nearly 20 marble-related nephrite deposits in East Asia, revealing the common mineralization patterns of nephrite and establishing a comprehensive nephrite geochemical database. On this basis, a non-destructive method for tracing the origin of ancient nephrite artifacts has been developed. This method has already been successfully applied to provenance studies of jade artifacts excavated from several important prehistoric sites, preliminarily outlining the prehistoric jade routes and fully demonstrating the value of prehistoric jade artifacts in studying the origin of Chinese civilization.