Materials Origin Traceability of Serpentine Jade Artifacts Unearthed from Fuquanshan Site

Serpentine jade is one of the earliest used jade materials, and its origin traceability has been a difficult problem for the academic circle. This study focused on 21 pieces of serpentine jade artifacts unearthed from the Songze culture to Liangzhu culture periods at the Fuquanshan site, Qingpu, Shanghai, and 19 of them were subjected to non-destructive testing by portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (p-XRF), and 6 of them were subjected to micro-area trace element testing by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS).The results show that there is a significant difference in the content of Cr and Ni elements in serpentine jade, with most samples having a content below 100 μg/g, some samples have a content higher than 1 000 μg/g, and there are two types: magnesian dolomite-type and ultramafic rock-type, which indicates that they originate from multiple sources. According to trace element analyses, the Cr/Ni ratios of the magnesian dolomite-type samples are from 0.16 to 1.21, which are close to the distribution range of serpentine jade from Yingkou, Liaoning. The Cr/Ni ratio of the ultramafic rock-type sample is 1.88, which is close to the range of the serpentine jade from Wushan, Gansu. The total amount of rare earth elements in dolomite-type serpentine jade samples unearthed from Fuquanshan site is relatively low, and the distribution patterns are diverse. Some rare earth distribution patterns in the samples match well with the serpentine jade from Yingkou, Liaoning. This analysis method can provide a reference for tracing the origin of specific types of ancient serpentine jade artifacts.