Bronze Age ice skates with bone blades discovered in China

By Tom Metcalfe published about 11 hours ago

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.



A photo of a bone blade with holes on either end.
The roughly 3,500-year-old bone ice skates found in Xinjiang are almost exactly like prehistoric ice skates found in northern Europe. (Image credit: Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)

Archaeologists in China have unearthed 3,500-year-old ice skates crafted from animal bone in the country's western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a mountainous area that some archaeologists think was the birthplace of skiing.

These ice skates, the oldest ever found in China, were made from the bones of oxen and horses, according to a translated statement(opens in new tab). They were found in a tomb in the Gaotai Ruins, about 240 miles (385 kilometers) west of the regional capital Ürümqi, archaeologists with the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous regional government said at a news event on Feb. 27.

It's not known if the skates were used for hunting or for regular travel. They consist of a straight piece of bone with holes at both ends so they could be strapped to footwear. The resulting "blade" is very flat compared with modern skates, but it formed a cutting edge that allowed the wearer to glide across the ice.

Archaeologist Ruan Qiurong, of the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, told reporters that the newly-found skates are almost exactly the same as ice skates from prehistoric Europe, which can be interpreted as new evidence of a theorized exchange of information between the ancient west and east in the Bronze Age. They are also rare physical material for studying the origins of ice skating in China, he said.



The skates were found in tombs at the Jirentai Goukou archaeological site in China's Xinjiang, which archaeologists think was inhabited by people from the Andronovo culture of cattle-herders in the late Bronze Age. (Image credit: Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)

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