Primary research on the bronze technology of Lower Xiajiadian Culture in northeastern China

Abstract

The site of Habaqila is located in the area between Inner Mongolia and Liaoning provinces and dated to the 13th-11th centuries BC. It was identified as a metal production workshop of the Lower Xiajiadian Culture and revealed abundant metallurgical remains, including ore fragments, slags, technical ceramics, and stone implements. Scientific analyses demonstrated that polymetallic ores were smelted to produce tin bronze and arsenical copper. Perforated furnaces might have been employed in this process. The site also revealed the first known field evidence of tin smelting in a Bronze Age site of northern China. Systematic investigation of this site increases our understanding of metallurgical processes of Bronze Age culture in northern China.

Shiny bronze in glassy matter: an inconspicuous piece of slag from the Bronze Age mining site of Mušiston (Tajikistan) and its significance for the development of tin metallurgy in Central Asia

“…This is per se not much more than in other Bronze Age copper slags and in the few early tin slags. Comparable contents of iron were reported from contexts of the developed Bronze Age from elsewhere (Bachmann and Rothenberg 1980;Bachmann 1982;Tylecote et al 1989;Chirikure et al 2010;Heimann et al 2010;Hauptmann 2007;Addis et al 2016;Figueiredo et al 2018;Li et al 2019). The question of intentional fluxing with iron oxides (hematite, limonite, goethite) is hence not straightforward to answer, especially since the original ore charge and the process components like refractories are almost completely missing in the present case.…”

“…The prospect of a possible prehistoric smelting in the immediate vicinity of a tin deposit is particularly electrifying: while evidence of early tin mining is rare in archaeological records, proof of tin smelting is even rarer due to the lack of finds. Only two handfuls of metallurgical debris are known from the Eurasian Bronze Age, including tin and bronze slags as well as smelting crucibles (Miles 1975;Tylecote et al 1989;Herdits et al 1995;Yener and Vandiver 1993;Adriaens 1996;Mahé-Le Carlier et al 2001;Rodríguez Díaz et al 2001;Rovira and Montero 2003;Rovira 2005;Figueiredo et al 2010;Stöllner et al 2011;Le Carlier de Veslud et al 2017;Li et al 2019). The potential evidence of smelting of the Mušiston copper-tin ores provided by a multi-analytical approach will thus significantly enhance our knowledge on the processing of tin in the Bronze Age.…”

Study on the Application of Bronze Fantasy Animal Ornamentation in Foundry Design

“…It was thick and dignified, with gradually longer inscriptions and rich patterns. [1] In the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Lv Clan, "Zhou Ding casts gluttons. It has a head but no body, and the cannibalism is not swallowed, which is harmful to his body".…”