The iconic winged lion statue in Venice may be from China's Tang dynasty

A bronze statue of a winged lion that has long graced the centre of Piazza San Marco in Venice is from a faraway land, according to a new study.

- WORDS KRISTINA KILLGROVE

It was made in China as a tomb guardian over 1,000 years ago and may have been imported to Italy by Marco Polo's father via the Silk Road in the 13th century. In the study, researchers identified the source of the bronze used to create the iconic lion, which became an official symbol of Venice in the early 1260s but whose exact origins are murky. The researchers examined a series of nine samples from different parts of the lion and used mass spectrometry to identify the ratios of lead isotopes in the metal. Metal alloys like bronze, a mixture of copper and tin, contain small amounts of lead, the researchers wrote in the study, and the variations in lead atoms can indicate the geological source of the copper.