Ice skates made of bone have been unearthed from a Bronze Age tomb in western China, suggesting an ancient technological exchange between the east and west of Eurasia.Buried wooden wagons found at archaeological site in China’s Xinjiang.(Image credit: Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)
The archaeologists also found the remains of dozens of wooden wagons or carts that appear to have been used to build the tomb platform. They include 11 solid wooden wheels and more than 30 wooden parts, including rims and shafts.
“We initially judged that [the wagons] were used to build the high platform around the tombs, and then dismantled and deliberately buried,” Qiurong said at the news conference.
The bone skates found at the Goaotai Ruins are not the oldest on record, but are surprisingly similar to 5,000 year-old skates found in Finland; and similar ice skates have been found at archaeological sites throughout northern Europe.
