Rare marble sphinx unearthed in NW China .

A rare well-preserved marble sphinx carving has been unearthed in a tomb in northwest China dating back more than 1,000 years, said Chinese archaeologists on Tuesday.
The delicately-carved sphinx statue is 36 cm high with 21 cm long and 13 cm wide base. It has a human face with a bulge on the head and a sitting lion body. The sphinx statue was excavated in November along with eight warrior, horse, camel and lion carvings in the tomb in Guyuan City, Ningxi Hui Autonomous Region. The tomb was one of the 29 ancient graves in the area which archaeologists have excavated this year to pave way for the construction of a local water plant. More than 150 funeral items, such as carvings, pottery, bronze and iron wares, have been unearthed from the graves so far. The sphinx statue, made of white marble according to preliminary research, was intact except for minor damage in the middle of the face.
Read more at: archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.jp...
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The link goes on to say Ningxia was along the ancient Silk Road trade route, so most likely we are looking at Persian influence, someone had a nice thread on sphinxes from around the world this could be an add on.

Would be very interesting to see the burial sites as they unveil. Someone get those excavate teams a go pro!!

Very cool!!!

a reply to: Spider879q
I wonder if they are saying a human head on a lion body, because they are making the assumption of a sphinx.

From what I can see, and it doesn't show a lot of fine detail, but it doesn't look like the body of a lion to me.

Very cool!

I have nothing else to add but to say I absolutely love this kind of stuff!

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn



This one appears to have the haunches of a lion and the front legs of a horse, so its showing a clear Greek influence
en.wikipedia.org...

I just threw up a little. You know that horrible feeling when your food rises up your throat but then instead of coming out it goes back down? This is what happens to me when I see sphinxes.

Sphinxes creep me out. There's something so unnerving about them.

What were they made for?

I look at this sphinx, and I understand the importance of history and archaeology etc etc but I can't help but wonder... Why?

What demented minds came up with these creepy things? What is the point? Why make so many of them? What do they mean? Why do I have nightmares about them? Did the people of the ancient world know I was coming and make a whole bunch of these sh*ts just to screw with me? Is it considered rude to interrogate Egyptian people on their sphinxical history?

Seriously though, they're obviously important to more than just one culture. For what purpose?

Paws or hooves, man or beast. No matter, our leader is a great warrior, he will protect us. For he has cat like reflexes and is swift as a horse.

How can we loose?

a reply to: Marduk

This one appears to have the haunches of a lion and the front legs of a horse, so its showing a clear Greek influence

Good catch, this would be even more interesting as to who bought that influence to NW China but although it looked like a Greek version, given the date of a thousand yrs ago, i'd still have to go with a Persian diffusion.

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: Marduk

This one appears to have the haunches of a lion and the front legs of a horse, so its showing a clear Greek influence

although it looked like a Greek version, given the date of a thousand yrs ago, i'd still have to go with a Persian diffusion.

Nope, imo, its based on an Indian Sphinx
China and India were closely connected around that time because of religion, Buddha in many peoples consciousness is a little fat Chinese guy
In real life, he was born and raised in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE
en.wikipedia.org...
Because of this many Chinese used to make a pilgrimage to India

Indian mythology was heavily influenced by the Greeks
details here
en.wikipedia.org...

Looks like a flying cone head monkey.

originally posted by: Marduk

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: Marduk

This one appears to have the haunches of a lion and the front legs of a horse, so its showing a clear Greek influence

although it looked like a Greek version, given the date of a thousand yrs ago, i'd still have to go with a Persian diffusion.

Nope, imo, its based on an Indian Sphinx
China and India were closely connected around that time because of religion, Buddha in many peoples consciousness is a little fat Chinese guy
In real life, he was born and raised in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE
en.wikipedia.org...
Because of this many Chinese used to make a pilgrimage to India

Indian mythology was heavily influenced by the Greeks
details here
en.wikipedia.org...

Ok I can go with that, it's a neat fit.

I guess I'm just stuck in a mindset that the world was still quite large 1000 years ago. I would not think Lions were a commonly known animal in China. Tigers yes, but Lions? I thought they were an African Continent based animal. I can imagine a Lion being a great gift for the man who has everything, Like say an emperor. I just can't put my mind past the sacks on the guys who were brave enough to catch and transport one across the world with 1000 year old tech. Ships were close quarters as it was, throw a giant man eating possibly sea sick monster into the mix?! I'm out! Like a bamboo cage is gonna be fine.

That is just my thinking small side, not giving our ancestors credit for having the exact same brains we have now. Granted, there are a lot of idiots out there, a lot of mouth breathers, they were just as smart as us.

Great find! The objects, and to you OP, for digging up this story for us.. Thanks!

I forgot to add that the cloven hooves (spelling?) are a bit puzzling. They look split like a goat rather than solid like a horse, to me. Marlon Brando had a ball mixing up this one. I mean seriously, imagine that thing just casually walking up and asking for directions.

originally posted by: wastedown
I guess I'm just stuck in a mindset that the world was still quite large 1000 years ago. I would not think Lions were a commonly known animal in China. Tigers yes, but Lions? I thought they were an African Continent based animal. I can imagine a Lion being a great gift for the man who has everything, Like say an emperor. I just can't put my mind past the sacks on the guys who were brave enough to catch and transport one across the world with 1000 year old tech. Ships were close quarters as it was, throw a giant man eating possibly sea sick monster into the mix?! I'm out! Like a bamboo cage is gonna be fine.

That is just my thinking small side, not giving our ancestors credit for having the exact same brains we have now. Granted, there are a lot of idiots out there, a lot of mouth breathers, they were just as smart as us.

Great find! The objects, and to you OP, for digging up this story for us.. Thanks!

Well there were/are lions in Asia, not many they were hunted down early on into near extinction, but the Sphinx is a cultural diffusion btw, check this out.

The Swahili merchant king of east Africa sent the Emperor of China this wonderful gift once thought to be mythological,in Japan it was imagined like this.

originally posted by: Marduk
a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

This one appears to have the haunches of a lion and the front legs of a horse, so its showing a clear Greek influence
en.wikipedia.org...

I had made my claim based on the image you posted, as I did not see the front legs to be that of a lion. But when comparing the the two pictures, I am having trouble seeing them as the same statue. It only speaks of one in the article, and I have tried to vision it from different angels and different lighting, but they still don't seem to be the exact same statute to me.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Nah, they're the same statue, just at different angles. The first picture is also pretty overexposed. Look at the shape of the nose, the mustache(?) beneath it, and the knobs on the front legs just above the hooves.

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Nah, they're the same statue, just at different angles. The first picture is also pretty overexposed.

The first picture also appears to be in situ, hence the above and from the front angle. And the second is after the artifact had been cleaned up a little.

Somewhere in time before evolution became complete a lot of half-human - half-animal has roamed earth. The carbon dating process of machines and calculations of man are off by hundreds if not thousands of years.

originally posted by: ImmortalLegend527
Somewhere in time before evolution became complete a lot of half-human - half-animal has roamed earth. .

Before evolution, err ok, right, lol

The carbon dating process of machines and calculations of man are off by hundreds if not thousands of years.

How many times are you fringers who don't understand how radiocarbon dating works going to try to run that one. Its baloney, carbon dating is accurate. What isn't accurate is the claims of pseudo historians, who pretend that radiocarbon dating isn't accurate so that they can create a god of the gaps argument in their ignorant readers