Cast Iron Smelting and Fining: An Iron Smelting Site of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Xuxiebian, Sichuan Province, China

Abstract

In this article, we introduce the excavation of an iron smelting site at Xuxiebian 許鞋匾, Pujiang 蒲江 County, Sichuan 四川 Province in the PRC. Two excavations were carried out in 2007 and 2011, and a total of four bowl-shaped furnaces, five pits, two trenches, and one posthole were excavated. The site is dated from the mid-late Eastern Han dynasty to the Jin dynasty (ca. AD 150-420) according to the local pottery assemblage. It is possible that the sole functions of the Xuxiebian site were the production of pig iron ingots and the conversion of pig iron to wrought iron. The iron ingots were likely transported to areas with stronger administrative control by the central government near the ancient city of Chengdu or even to the Central Plains, where they were then cast into different objects.