Ancient zinc mining and metallurgy site discovered in China's Hunan Province

From July to December in 2016, 14 large Zinc mining and metallurgy sites in Guiyang district were surveyed by Hunan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology cooperates with Peking University School of Archaeology and Museology and other organizations. Intentional excavation of Tongmuling site was hence carried out.

Aerial photo of Tongmuling site [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]

The survey and excavation revealed a number of intact, large-scaled zinc and multi-metal smelting sites, unearthed a series of important smelting remains, encouraged our understanding of smelting technology during Ming and Qing dynasties, which therefore promoted the archaeological research on crafts production.

Excavation Results

Tongmuling site is situated in Renyi Town, Guiyang County. The total area of the site is around 110,000 square meters. There is a platform formed by slag in the center of the site. The surface of the platform is triangular, with a length of 100 meters from the east to the west and a width of 50 meters from the south to the north. According to the excavation, a burning unit and two smelting unites on the platform presented a “品” shape, show that the mines were burned first and then smelted.

The burning unit is located in front of the platform (south part) and distributed in an oval shape with a length of 55 meters from the east to the west, a width of 20 meters from the south to the north, and a total area of about 1100 square meters. There are 6 burning stations distributed according to the topography in the burning unit. Each burning station consists of 4 or 8 cylindrical burning furnaces. The burning furnaces have similar size, with a diameter of around 0.9 meters at the opening and a preserved height of 0.8 meters. The wall is relatively straight and the bottom is flat. There is a ventilation opening on a side of the furnace.

The melting workshop [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]

The first smelting unit is located in the east part of the platform and distributed in a round-cornered rectangular shape with a length of 55 meters, a width of 25 meters, and a total area of about 1300 square meters. In this unit, No. 1 channel furnace smelting workshop is preserved more complete. The channel furnace is the main body of the workshop and surrounded by remains such as the storage pit, mixing pit, stirring pit, and raw material pile.

The second smelting unit is located in the southwest part of the platform. In this unit, there are 3 smelting workshops with the channel furnace as the main body. The workshops are all connected with the road surface; therefore, they are suggested as the remains from same time period. The structure, design, and size of each workshop are similar to No. 1 channel furnace smelting workshop in the first smelting unit. According to the investigation, the collapse of the southwest part of the third channel furnace was probably caused by coal mining in modern times.

Illustration showing the smelting process [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]

A series of relatively intact smelting tools such as crucible, condensation pocket, condensation appliance, condensation lid, iron shovel, crooked chisel, and anvil were uncovered from the smelting working area. On the other hand, green graininess scattered slag and lumped corrugated slag were found. Also, furnace remains (K23 and K24) with a high content of copper, lead, and silver, as well as a suspected plank of circular bellow piston, were recovered at the correspondence positions to the slag. It is suggested that this is a multi-metal smelting site mainly used for zinc-smelting and combined with smelting of lead, copper, and silver.

Daily utensils and a small quantity of coins belong to Qianlong and Jiaqing periods of Qing dynasty were recovered from the housing and working areas. It is initially suggested that the site began to use in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and abandoned in the late Qing dynasty.

An ore wash trough on the river bed [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]

The archaeology team has investigated the surrounding areas of the Tongmuling site. Test excavations were also carried out to the sites with important signs and a double-lined furnace with a length of around 20 meters was recovered. This is the first time that this type of furnace found in China. On the other hand, remains related to zinc-smelting such as burning furnace, channel furnace, and housing remains were found.

Value and significance

The discovery and excavation of the entire platform in the center of the site indicates the function and structure of the smelting site. This is very important to the understanding of the function division, technological process, production capacity, and the daily life and productivity of the workers.

The discovery of lined round shaped furnaces has filled in the gap in the research of zinc-smelting technology in China. The channel furnaces recovered from the site are the most completed Qing dynasty zinc-smelting furnaces found in China. The remains of zinc-smelting and metallurgy uncovered with the furnaces dovetailed with the historical literature. It is very significant to the reconstruction of ancient zinc-smelting technology. The investigation and excavation result is a treasure to the research of Chinese metallurgical history, coin history, and political-social history.

Translator: Li Xuelei | Source: Chinese Archaeology [April 18, 2017]

byUnknown

in Archaeology, Asia, China, East Asia

April 18, 2017

Ancient zinc mining and metallurgy site discovered in China's Hunan Province

From July to December in 2016, 14 large Zinc mining and metallurgy sites in Guiyang district were surveyed by Hunan Institute of Cultural Re...

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New discoveries at Gezishan Palaeolithic Site in China's Ningxia Province

Gezishan Site is located at the northwest of Qingtongxia city, Ningxia Province, it is an important prehistorical site in the later period of late Pleistocene in China. From 2013, the Ningxia Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics in conjunction with Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences made a systematical research, and cleared up the selected location No.10. In 2016, another great finding was made during the excavation.

Remains of camp fire found in Gezishan Site [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]

Excavation and research plan

Location No.10 was at the east of the Gezishan Basin. From 2014 to 2015, the archaeological team had felt out the distribution of the connate deposit of the site in the current situation, also had ascertained the actuality of the core area of the cultural layer. In 2016, archaeologists decided to expand the excavation scale in the core area, in order to get the overall connotation of the site.

In 2016, the archaeological team decided to clear up 200 excavation units (whose length of side was 1 meter) at the north of the core zone of the site, with an area of about 180 square meters. Expect the upper layer (disruption layer) was excavated as a thickness of about 20 to 30 centimeters layer, the rest was excavated as a thickness of about 5 to 10 centimeters.

Stratum, age, artifacts and remains

The stratum was divided into 5 layers, and archaeologists have recorded the three-dimensional coordinates of about 7,000 stone tools (larger than 2 centimeters) and more than 500 pieces of animal bones; Dozens of ostrich eggshell beads was found, especially those of less than 2 millimeters diameter, which became an important achievement of this excavation, however, the manufacturing techniques and the usage method, indicating the skills and cognitive competence need to be further researched.

The section which showed the uncertain post hole [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]

Meanwhile, about 400 pieces of charcoal samples was collected from different layers, in order to establish a high-resolution chronology frame and a solid background for the culture understanding. More than 20 remains of fire-using and carbon dust dense area were revealed, a large amount of burnt stones scattered in the excavation, and some of which were fireplaces with burnt bones around. In the fourth layer of excavation unit T5, dozens of round pits, with about 10-20 centimeters in diameter, 5-20 centimeters in depth were found, in zonal distribution, which was speculated to be temporary dwelling remains.

Academic values and significance

The excavation of Gezishan Site was the first time that chronosequence from the late period of late Pleistocene to the early period of holocene was established at the edge of the northwestern desert in China, providing important materials for understanding the prehistoric human activities and environmental change in this special geographic zone. Given to the excavation, archaeologists firstly found the stone saddle-quern, stone roller, featured bi-facial tools and Helan pointed implements in situ, which defining the date of those artifacts, and providing evidence of the means of livelihood and diet of ancient people at that moment in this area.

The ostrich eggshell beads [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]

The ostrich eggshell  and ornaments unearthed in the site refreshed our understandings towards the cognitive competence and skills of processing tiny objects of the ancient people, as well as providing perfect samples of studying their complex techniques and cognitive competence. A large number of fire using traces inside the site and its spatial distribution not only reflected the livelihood pattern, the background of climate and environment of ancient humans, but providing important informatiom for the activities of making fire, using fire and the use of housing space.

The pierced calcite ornaments [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]

Location No.10 of Gezishan site provides a complete stratigraphic sequence for this region. The cultural accumulations of at least three different periods have not only enriched our understanding of the period and its culture, but have also made it a special location for studying the cultural evolution and prehistoric human activities of the desert fringe zone from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene as well as the transitional period from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. 

Translator: Wang Jue | Source: Chinese Archaeology [April 14, 2017]

byUnknown

in Archaeology, Asia, China, East Asia

April 14, 2017

New discoveries at Gezishan Palaeolithic Site in China's Ningxia Province

Gezishan Site is located at the northwest of Qingtongxia city, Ningxia Province, it is an important prehistorical site in the later period o...

Read More

Precision chronology sheds new light on origins of Mongolia's nomadic horse culture

According to new research, nomadic horse culture—famously associated with Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes—can trace its roots back more than 3,000 years in the eastern Eurasian Steppes, in the territory of modern Mongolia.

Domestic horse head burial from Mongolia’s Deer Stone-Khirigsuur complex, used in the study 
[Credit: William Taylor]

The study, published in Journal of Archaeological Science, produces scientific estimates of the age of horse bones found from archaeological sites belonging to a culture known as the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex. This culture, named for the beautiful carved standing stones ("deer stones") and burial mounds (khirigsuurs) it built across the Mongolian Steppe, is linked with some of the oldest evidence for nomadic herding and domestic livestock use in eastern Eurasia. At both deer stones and khirigsuurs, stone mounds containing ritual burials of domestic horses - sometimes numbering the hundreds or thousands - are found buried around the edge of each monument.

A team of researchers from several academic institutions - including the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Yale University, University of Chicago, the American Center for Mongolian Studies, and the National Museum of Mongolia - used a scientific dating technique known as radiocarbon dating to estimate the spread of domestic horse ritual at deer stones and khirigsuurs.

'Deer stone' stela in Bayankhongor province, central Mongolia, surrounded by small stone mounds 
containing domestic horse remains [Credit: William Taylor]

When an organism dies, an unstable radioactive molecule present in living tissues, known as radiocarbon, begins to decay at a known rate. By measuring the remaining concentration of radiocarbon in organic materials, such as horse bone, archaeologists can estimate how many years ago an animal took its final step. Many previous archaeological projects in Mongolia produced radiocarbon date estimates from horse remains found at these Bronze Age archaeological sites. However, because each of these measurements must be calibrated to account for natural variation in the environment over time, individual dates have large amounts of error and uncertainty, making them difficult to aggregate or interpret in groups.

By using a statistical technique known as Bayesian analysis - which combines probability with archaeological information to improve precision for groups of radiocarbon dates - the study authors were able to produce a high-precision chronology model for early domestic horse use in Mongolia. Lead author William Taylor, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, says that this model "enables us for the first time to link horse use with other important cultural developments in ancient Mongolia and eastern Eurasia, and evaluate the role of climate and environmental change in the local origins of horse riding."

Domestic horses form the center of nomadic life in contemporary Mongolia 
[Credit: P. Enkhtuvshin]

According to the study, domestic horse ritual spread rapidly across the Mongol Steppe at around 1200 BC - several hundred years before mounted horsemen are clearly documented historical records. When considered alongside other evidence for horse transport in the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex these results suggest that Mongolia was an epicenter for early horse culture - and probably early mounted horseback riding.

The study has important consequences for our understanding of human responses to climate change. For example, one particularly influential hypothesis argues that horse riding and nomadic herding societies developed during the late second millennium BCE, as a response to drought and a worsening climate. Taylor and colleagues' results indicate instead that early horsemanship took place during a wetter, more productive climate period - which may have given herders more room to experiment with horse breeding and transport.

Domestic horse head burial from Mongolia's Deer Stone-Khirigsuur complex, used in the study 
[Credit: William Taylor]

In recent years, scholars have become increasingly aware of the role played by Inner Asian nomads in early waves of globalization. A key article published this month in Nature argues that nomadic movement patterns shaped the early trans-Eurasian trade networks that would eventually move goods, people, and information across the continent. The development of horsemanship by Mongolian cultures might have been one of the most influential changes in Eurasian prehistory - laying the groundwork for the economic and ecological exchange networks that defined the Old World for centuries to come.

Source: Max Planck Society [April 11, 2017]

byUnknown

in Archaeology, Asia, East Asia, Mongolia

April 11, 2017

Precision chronology sheds new light on origins of Mongolia's nomadic horse culture

According to new research, nomadic horse culture—famously associated with Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes—can trace its roots back more t...

Read More

Ming Dynasty bridge unearthed in eastern China's Anhui

An ancient bridge has been discovered at the site of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city of East China's Anhui province.

An ancient bridge has been unearthed at the historic site of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) 
in Fengyang city of East China's Anhui province [Credit: VCG]

According to archaeologists, the bridge was constructed with grey bricks during Ming Dynasty and had been in service since completion.

Archaeological staff members clean up the mud on the periphery of the ancient bridge at the historic site of the Middle 
Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city of East China's Anhui province, April 9, 2017 
[Credit: VCG]

In 1970s, due to road construction, the bridge was buried under the ground. However, it was not until last year that the ancient bridge was excavated again.

The ancient bridge was constructed with grey bricks [Credit: VCG]

Chen Huairen, an expert on Ming Dyansty, said the bridge was located at Yunji Street, a second axis that crossed the main axis of the city.

Aerial view of the historical site of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city 
of East China's Anhui province, April 9, 2017 [Credit: VCG]

Other ancient capital cities Xi'an and Beijing only had one city axis in north-south direction, but the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty in Fengyang had two, which makes it unique in city planning, said Chen.

Some parts of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city have been restored 
[Credit: VCG]

At the site, Donghua Gate, Southeastern Corner Tower, and Merdian Gate of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty have been restored.

Source: China Daily [April 10, 2017]

byUnknown

in Archaeology, Asia, China, East Asia

April 10, 2017

Ming Dynasty bridge unearthed in eastern China's Anhui

An ancient bridge has been discovered at the site of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city of East China's Anh...

Read More