A group of archaeologists in China have uncovered concrete evidence proving that material exchanges between the East and West began long before the Silk Road was formally established in ancient China's Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD), shedding new light on evidence proving the existence of ancient trade routes.

Findings released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on Tuesday reveal that glass beads which resemble dragonfly eyes unearthed from four sites in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are similar with those discovered earlier in central China's Hubei Province.

Both sets of beads are believed to have originated from the Levant region along the eastern Mediterranean coast.

According to China Central Television (CCTV), this discovery indicates that material cultural exchanges between the East and West were taking place long before the missions of the ancient Chinese explorer Zhang Qian to the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty. These exchanges occurred on what could be referred to as the "pre-Silk Road," prior to the formal establishment of the Silk Road in the Han Dynasty.

These unique "dragonfly-eye" glass beads are created by embedding one or more colours of glass into the base glass, forming patterns resembling the compound eyes of a dragonfly.

The origin of these beads can be traced back to Ancient Egypt around the 16th century BC.

In China, large quantities of such beads have also been discovered in tombs of the State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770 BC-221 BC) in what is now central China's Hubei, Hunan, and Henan Provinces.

Numerous sites in Xinjiang have also yielded soda-lime glass beads.