Earliest bronze in Gansu, north-west China
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Date
2009-12-02
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Australasian Environmental Isotope Conference
Abstract
Understanding of the origin and development of bronze technology in eastern Asia is at an early stage. It is not known if there was a spread of the technology from Mesopotamia, around 3,300 BC, or whether it developed independently in eastern Asia. Here we examine some early settlement sites in Gansu which include evidence of complex agriculture and abundant bronze slag and ore. Here we examine the lead and strontium isotopic composition of bronze slag and copper ores from archaeological sites and a mine in western Gansu. In addition we have carried out geochemical analyses of two ancient lake sediment sequences, and in particular looked for enhanced signatures of copper and other cations. It is probable that multiple sources of ore were used in bronze manufacture and that this has taken place in Gansu since at least 3,700 BP. The archaeological sites contain abundant millet seeds and occasional wheat, barley and oat seeds, and fragments of pottery, animal bone and occasional human grave sites. Clearly these were well-developed and sophisticated societies for the time and there were transfers of technology and people about 2000 years earlier than is recognised by what became known as the Silk Road.
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Keywords
Bronze, China, Strontium, Copper, Historical aspects, Archaeological sites, Slags, Ores
Citation
Dodson, J. (2009). Earliest bronze in Gansu, north-west China. Invited plenary presented to the 10th Australasian Environmental Isotope Conference and 3rd Australasian Hydrogeology Research Conference, Resources and Chemistry Precinct, Curtin University Perth, Western Australia 1st – 3rd December 2009. In Grice, K. & Trinajstic, K. (eds), The 10th Australasian Environmental Isotope Conference and 3rd Australasian Hydrogeology Research Conference abstract volume : Resources and Chemistry Precinct, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, 1st-3rd December 2009, (pp. vii).