Determination of Sources of Vermilion Used in Japanese Burial Mound of Yayoi and Kofun Periods

Abstract

Several remains have been found from the Yayoi to Kofun periods that used more than 10 kg vermilion. Initially it was thought that vermilion was imported from China together with the funeral ceremony. However, it might be a display of power to use a large amount of vermilion for the remains in the funeral ceremony. Vermilion is refined from cinnabar ore and there are many cinnabar mines in Japan and China. However, as it is clear from ancient documents and surviving remains that some mines collected cinnabar ore from ancient times, we selected five cinnabar mines in Japan and China where cinnabar ore was probably collected in ancient times. When the sulfur isotope ratio of cinnabar ore was measured, it was observed that the ratio differed between Japanese and Chinese mines. From these previous studies, the sulfur isotope ratio of vermilion collected from remains in northern Kyushu from the mid-Yayoi to early Kofun periods was measured and vermilion showing a positive value similar to Chinese cinnabar ore was observed in several remains. Furthermore, several remains were surrounded by vermilion refined from Japanese ore. From these results, it is thought that measuring the sulfur isotope ratio of vermilion is a useful analytical method to identify the original mine of vermilion used in remains, but a weak point is that vermilion can be collected from only one or few points in a burial mound. More reliable information might be obtained if we collected vermilion from many collection points in a burial mound.

Influence of Stabilizing Elements on Ductile-Brittle Transition Temperature (DBTT) of 18Cr Ferritic Stainless Steels

“…Various reports have investigated the influence of the chemical composition and precipitates (carbides or nitrides) on the toughness of ferritic stainless steels. [10][11][12][13][14][15] Krivobok 10) investigated the impact absorbed energies of iron-based alloys with various C and Cr contents. The measured absorbed energies appeared to be independent of the Cr content below approximately 16% Cr, but decreased with an increase in the C content above that level.…”

Pigments — Mercury-based red (cinnabar-vermilion) and white (calomel) and their degradation products

“…In Japan, the funerary use of cinnabar lasted from the mid-Yayoi period till the late Kofun period (4 th century BC-6 th century AD). It was aimed at decorating (coffins), preserving (antisepsis) and staining (textiles), as well as having a ritual function and representing a symbol of power (Kawano et al 2014). An example is provided by the Takamatsuzuka tumulus (7 th -8 th centuries) at Asuka (Nara prefecture, Kinki region), where cinnabar was identified in the murals (Kitada et al 2015).…”

“…Therefore, one remains in doubt about when the exploitation began (e.g., Monte Amiata in Tuscany). In China and Japan, the Wanshan mine (Guizhou, China), the XunYang mine (Shaanxi, China), the Niu mine (Mie, Japan), Yamato-Suigin mine (Nara, Japan) and Sui mine (Tokushima, Japan) were identified as ancient mines (Kawano et al 2014).…”

“…As for sulphur isotopes, data on natural cinnabar occurrences are limited but particularly focused on ancient mining districts (Table 7). This method has been used for provenance investigation by Damiani et al (2003), Minami et al (2005), Domínguez-Bella (2010), Spangenberg et al (2010), Kawano et al (2014), Tsantini et al (2018) and Minami et al (2019). Further data on natural ores are provided by Lavrič and Spangenberg (2003) for the Idrija mine in Slovenia and Jébrak et al (2002) for the Nuevo Entredicho deposit in Spain.…”

Cinnabar provenance of Chalcolithic red pigments in the Iberian Peninsula: A lead isotope study

“…Cinnabar traceability can be accomplished by characterising the isotopic abundances of its chemical elements, because isotope fractionation processes that take place before or during the formation of ore deposits may induce variations of parts per thousand in the isotopic ratios (Coplen & Shrestha, 2016). This approach has proven successful in cinnabar provenance studies that have employed sulphur or mercury isotope analysis (Cooke et al, 2013; Emslie et al, 2015; Kawano, Takeuchi, Takahashi, Imazu, & Minami, 2014; Minami, Imai, Bunno, Kawakami, & Imazu, 2005; Spangenberg, Lavric, Meisser, & Serneels, 2010; Tsantini, Minami, Takahashi, & Cau Ontiveros, 2018).…”