China claims it invented SKIING: Tourist board says ancient rock art depicting figures holding ski-like objects proves the sport originated in the nation 10,000 years ago – long before it became popular in Europe
- China is challenging the belief that northern Europe is the birthplace of skiing
- Beijing claims sport actually originated in China more than 10,000 years ago
- It says ancient rock art depicting figures holding ski-like objects proves claim
- Europe seen as origin of after skis dating back to 2,500BC found in Swedish bog
Beijing is challenging the belief that Europe is the birthplace of skiing, claiming the sport actually originated in China more than 10,000 years ago.
The country’s tourist board said that ancient rock art depicting figures holding ski-like objects proves the claim.
Northern Europe has been seen as the origin of alpine sports ever since skis dating back to 2,500BC were found preserved in a Swedish peat bog.
Skiing is the latest in a number of sports claimed to have been founded in China, including football, surfing and golf.
Beijing is challenging the belief that Europe is the birthplace of skiing, claiming the sport actually originated in China more than 10,000 years ago. The country’s tourist board said that ancient rock art depicting figures holding ski-like objects (pictured top left) proves the claim
The drawings, which were found in Xinjiang province in 2005, also feature animals alongside the figures holding ski-like objects, suggesting that people were using them to hunt
WHAT IS CARBON DATING?
Carbon dating, also referred to as radiocarbon dating or carbon-14 dating, is a method that is used to determine the age of an object.
Carbon-14 is a carbon isotope that is commonly used by archaeologists and historians to date ancient bones and artefacts.
The rate of decay of carbon-14 is constant and easily measured, making it ideal for providing age estimates for anything over 300 years old.
It can only be used on objects containing organic material – that was once ‘alive’ and therefore contained carbon.
Carbon-14 has a long half-life, 5,370 years to be exact.
This long half-life can be used to find out how old objects are by measuring how much radioactivity is left in a specimen.
Due to the long half-life, archaeologists have been able to date items up to 50,000 years old.
The drawings, which were found in Xinjiang province in 2005, also feature animals alongside the figures holding ski-like objects, suggesting that people were using them to hunt.
They have not yet been carbon-dated but China insists that they prove Beijing deserves to host the Winter Games.
The government used the opening ceremony to promote Xinjiang, a region that has been accused of committing crimes against humanity, including mass detention, surveillance, and torture of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
It cited Xinjiang as the birthplace and future of skiing, with the country’s state broadcaster saying in a video broadcast during the ceremony: ‘You can see from the drawings that our ancestors from the Palaeolithic age made skis for transport and hunting in the snow.
‘This was the prototype of the earliest skiing event.’
Not only that but the official tourism site of Altay, a prefecture located in northern Xinjiang, has been changed to advertise the area as the origin of skiing.
A number of countries including Britain, the US, Australia and Canada have staged a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics over Beijing’s human rights record.
The stance means these countries have not sent top officials to China, but athletes are still competing.
In December, a London tribunal found that China had subjected Uyghur Muslims to genocide through forced sterilisations and abortions authorised by Beijing’s highest officials.
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in Xinjiang have been incarcerated without any justification, the tribunal’s chair Sir Geoffrey Nice QC said.
The panel probing alleged human rights abuses — made up of nine lawyers and human rights experts — published its opinion after hearing allegations of torture, rape and inhumane treatment at two evidence sessions last year.
It said it was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that torture of thousands of Uyghurs had occurred, and upheld claims of imprisonment, forced transfer, enforced disappearances, rape and sexual violence, persecution and inhumane acts.
The panel added that China’s President Xi Jinping and other senior officials ‘bear primary responsibility’.
The drawings have not yet been carbon-dated but China insists that they prove Beijing deserves to host the Winter Games
Beijing dismissed the findings.
The country’s rulers have denied the allegations as ‘nothing but vicious lies concocted by anti-China forces’.
Golf is among the sports claimed to have originated in China, with scholars suggesting it can be traced to the Nantang dynasty in the 10th century.
Last year a study claimed that the Chinese have been surfing since at least the 8th century, while in 2004 FIFA acknowledged that people in the Zhou dynasty, from 1046 until 771BC, played a game known as ‘kickball’.
WHAT ANCIENT TREASURES HAS MELTING ICE REVEALED IN NORWAY AND WHAT DO THEY SHOW?
The discovery of Ötzi the iceman in 1991 may be the most famous find to have grabbed the world’s attention, but according to a group of researchers writing in their blog, Secrets if Ice, artefacts from glacial ice were reported already in the early 20th century.
The first known find was an arrow recovered from an ice in Oppdal in Norway in 1914. The summer of the 1930s saw yet more discoveries, with a few finds in Oppland. Things then quietened down in the 1990s with arrows, atlatl darts and paleo-zoological material found in Yukon.
But then a huge melting season in Norway in 2006 started exposes yet more stunning preserved artefacts.
More than 2,000 remarkably well-preserved hunting artefacts have emerged from melting ice in Norway’s highest mountains, dating as far back as 4000 BC.
The incredible finds were made by ‘glacial archaeologists’ in Jotunheimen and the surrounding areas of Oppland, which include Norway’s highest mountains. They include:
- An Iron Age arrow from Trollsteinhøe
- An arrow from 800 AD
- A tunic dated to around 300 AD
- An arrowshaft from 3900 BC
- 11th century stick with an inscription made in the runic alphabet
- Ski with preserved binding from 700 AD
- Bronze Age shoe from 1300 BC
By statistical analysis of radiocarbon dates on these incredibly unusual finds, patterns began to emerge showing that they do not spread out evenly over time.
Researchers found there were particularly high numbers of finds dating to the 8th to 10th centuries AD.
This probably reflected the increased population, mobility (including the mountain passes) and trade just before and during the Viking Age.
During the Late Antique Little Ice Age (536 to 660 AD) there was an increase in activity.
This was a time of cooling; harvests ay have failed and populations may have dropped.
Mountain hunting (mainly for reindeer) increased to supplement failing agricultural harvests in times of low temperatures.
When the plague arrived in the mid-14th century, trade and markets in the north also suffered.
With fewer markets and fewer reindeer the activity in the high mountains decreased substantially.
Source: Read Full Article
