Tracing the flows of copper and copper alloys in the Early Iron Age societies of the eastern Eurasian steppe

Hsu, Yiu‐Kang; Bray, Peter; Hommel, Peter; Pollard, A. Mark; Rawson, Jessica

doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.22

Cited by 30 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…While the tin concentration of most of the Bronze Age samples exceeds 6%, with an average of 6.7%, the Iron Age samples have much lower tin, all less than 3% and around 1.4% on average (Table 1). This trend implies a potential shortage of tin supply in Iron Age UIV, which seems to agree with the situation in Cis-Baikal and Tuva noticed by Hsu et al (2016).…”

Section: Shift Between the Bronze And Iron Agessupporting

confidence: 86%

“…In the meantime, a number of objects could still have been imported, though their origins are probably varied and distinct from the one(s) in the Bronze Age. The decrease of tin content in the Iron Age objects is suggestive of a tin shortage similar to that of several regions in the eastern Eurasian Steppe (Hsu et al 2016), suggesting also inconsistent technological practises and material supplies between the two periods.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 85%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Copper metallurgy in prehistoric upper Ili Valley, Xinjiang, China

Wang

Chen

Wang

et al. 2018

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The upper Ili Valley in northwest Xinjiang is a crucial place for the study of early interactions between the Eurasian Steppe and northern China. This paper presents scientific analytical results and examines the use and production of copper alloys in the region with regard to the transregional exchange of materials and technology. The substantial proportion of unalloyed copper and clear drop in tin concentrations in the bronze samples from the Iron Age indicates the decrease of tin usage compared with the Bronze Age. The shift between the Bronze and Iron Ages can also be seen from the lead isotope results. The changes of the material (alloys) and metal source(s) between the Bronze and Iron Ages in the upper Ili Valley imply movements of objects, raw materials and related technical practises.

show abstract

Section: Shift Between the Bronze And Iron Agessupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 85%

Copper metallurgy in prehistoric upper Ili Valley, Xinjiang, China

Wang

Chen

Wang

et al. 2018

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The bronze alloys of Shang commonly contain over 2 wt% lead, which distinguishes them from the copper alloys used by the cultures in the Eurasian Steppe (Hsu et al . ; Pollard et al . ).…”

Section: The Provenance Of Shang‐period Bronzesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Did China Import Metals from Africa in the Bronze Age?

Liu

Chen

Mei³

et al. 2018

Archaeometry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The origins of the copper, tin and lead for China's rich Bronze Age cultures are a major topic in archaeological research, with significant contributions being made by archaeological fieldwork, archaeometallurgical investigations and geochemical considerations. Here, we investigate a recent claim that the greater part of the Shang-period metalwork was made using metals from Africa, imported together with the necessary know-how to produce tin bronze. A brief review of the current status of lead isotopic study on Shang-period bronze artefacts is provided first, clarifying a few key issues involved in this discussion. It is then shown that there is no archaeological or isotopic basis for bulk metal transfer between Africa and China during the Shang period, and that the copper and lead in Shang bronze with a strongly radiogenic signature is not likely to be from Africa. We call for collaborative interdisciplinary research to address the vexing question of the Shang period's metal sources, focusing on smelting sites in geologically defined potential source regions and casting workshops identified at a number of Shang settlements. KEYWORDS: LEAD ISOTOPES, HIGHLY RADIOGENIC LEAD, SHANG BRONZE, PROVENANCE INTRODUCTIONMost major Bronze Age civilizations developed in the catchments of large rivers that were sustaining a high population density through intensive agriculture. These areas, however, are almost always devoid of mineral resources, which are typically exposed only in mountainous areas, remote from the centres of agricultural civilization. Thus, these centres were dependent on distant areas to provide their strategically important metals, primarily copper, tin and gold, but also lead and silver. Substantive research has identified major copper sources for Egypt, Mesopotamia and Chen et al. 2009Chen et al. , 2016Pollard et al. 2017). Among these, Shang-period bronzes dated between the 16th and 11th centuries BCE stand out due to their highly distinctive isotopic and chemical compositions. The identification of the geological source(s) of this metal is a long-standing issue in Chinese archaeology, which has attracted considerable research interest from many scholars of various disciplinary backgrounds. A recent paper by Sun et al. (2016) is a new, but unconvincing, attempt to answer this question. It not only claims that 'the Yin-Shang people may have learned bronze technology elsewhere and brought it to China ' (Sun et al. 2016, 5), but it also concludes that 'both the Yin-Shang and the Sanxingdui bronzes were obtained in Africa, bearing the highly radiogenic lead isotopic signatures of Africa's Archean cratons. Alternatively, some ancient people might have come to China from Africa, carrying tin and/or bronzes with them' (Sun et al. 2016, 6). These hypotheses are undoubtedly bold and eye-catching, but unfortunately are also fundamentally flawed. In this paper, we offer a brief summary of currently available research on highly radiogenic lead found in ancient Shang bronzes, clarifying a few key issues that were m...

show abstract

“…Hence, many of the earliest analyses of archaeological bronzes (from 1777c. 1830) simply report copper and tin, or sometimes only tin, with copper calculated by difference from 100% (Pollard 2016). Later in the history of gravimetric analysis, it became common to measure more than five elements (often Cu, Sn, Pb, Zn and Fe, perhaps with Ni and some other trace elements), although many were recorded as 'tr.'…”

Section: Evaluating 'Legacy Data'mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By primary, we mean that they are made to a specific (and therefore designed) composition, and do not contain significant amounts of recycled metal. Thus a unimodal approximately normal distribution of tin centred around a specific value (which is typically between 10 and 20%, depending on the quality or function of the alloy) indicates that the assemblage is likely to be made of a primary alloy (e.g., Cuénod et al 2015;Hsu et al 2016). In contrast, 'secondary' alloys tend to have a wider spread of values, often with a distribution EIA IA LIA C1AD C2AD C3AD C 0 0 2,7 3,8 1,2 0,7 LC 0 0 0 0 0 0 B 72, 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 B 72,9 73,2 27 14,6 18,5 14,9 10,3 2,4 LB 27,1 21,4 10,8 14,6 15,7 20,9 24,4 18,3 BR 0 1,8 29,7 29,1 12,9 4,7 1,3 0,8 LBR 0 0 0 1,1 0,4 0 0 0,5 G 0 1,8 18,9 20,3 26,6 18,9 14,1 2,9 LG 0 1,8 10,8 16,5 24,6 39,9…”

Section: Profiling Alloy Compositionsmentioning

confidence: 99%