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.
Highlights
The archaeometallurgical studies in China can be traced back to the middle of the last century, and the exchanges between western academia and Chinese scholars have been increasing since 2000 [1]
To unveil the diachronic development of Bronze Age copper production technology in northern China, a series of archaeological reconnaissance and excavation activities were conducted in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia following the discoveries of the national archaeological survey
According to modern geological databases, most of the substantial deposits of cassiterite are located in the south of China, so discussions about possible tin sources in northern China have never been systematically studied until researchers began to focus their attention on the tin-containing polymetallic deposits in the steppes of northern China, Mongolia, and Russia [14]
Summary
The archaeometallurgical studies in China can be traced back to the middle of the last century, and the exchanges between western academia and Chinese scholars have been increasing since 2000 [1]. To unveil the diachronic development of Bronze Age copper production technology in northern China, a series of archaeological reconnaissance and excavation activities were conducted in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia following the discoveries of the national archaeological survey. This region is not part of the ancient China proper, the understanding of Bronze Age cultures flourishing in this region could help to explain the origins of metallurgy in China [3] (Fig. 1). Traces of ancient mining and smelting activities have been recorded in the region, In addition, the availability of poly-metallic minerals containing copper, tin, and arsenic provides the prerequisite conditions for the smelting of diverse bronze alloys, but the actual production techniques—which would be in part driven by efficiency, trading conflicts or other socioeconomic circumstances, or based upon the demands of certain political or religious purposes, would need solid evidence like that recovered from Habaqila site to reconstruct convincingly the full metallurgical repertoire
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