Fwd: Sea shell shows link between ancient cultures

February 2, 2003

Sea shell shows link between ancient cultures

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Story Filed: Saturday, February 01, 2003 1:22 AM EST

QINGHAI, Feb 1, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- An ancient sea shell

discovered in northwest China's inland Qinghai province has provided

a valuable clue to the area's links with cultures of the Indian

subcontinent 3,000 years ago.

Chinese and Japanese researchers have concluded that a whelk

unearthed in graves from the Neolithic Kayue Culture in Huangzhong

County is a turbinella pyruin, which came from the Bay of Bengal.

Professor Li Fuxue, of the oceanology department of Xiamen

University based in east China's Fujian Province, and Kuroauma

Taiji, of the zoology department of the Natural History Museum and

Institute, in Chiba, Japan, both concluded that the turbinella

pyruin, which has a hole bored through the middle, was used as an

ornament.

Wang Guodao, vice-president of the Archeology Research Institute of

Qinghai, said the turbinella pyruin was commonly used as a musical

instrument in Buddhist rituals in ancient India, but it was a rare

find in China, especially in Qinghai, Wang said.

Archeologists are trying to ascertain the route by which the shell

came to Qinghai.

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