Coexistence of bloomery iron and cast iron in a Qin state cemetery dating to the mid Warring States period

IF 0.9 2区历史学 0 ARCHAEOLOGY Archaeological Research in Asia Pub Date : 2025-02-07 DOI:10.1016/j.ara.2025.100595

Yaxiong Liu , Siyu Sun , Liang Ma , Qinggang Geng , Zehao Dou , Kunlong Chen

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The aim of this article is to contribute to a better understanding of the transition from bloomery iron to cast iron technology in the Qin state during the Warring States period. Only five iron objects were unearthed from the Xuliangpo cemetery in the southeast of Xi'an, Shaanxi province. This small assemblage, already indicative of a technology in its early stages, dates to the mid Warring States period (around the mid-4th century BCE). Of these five objects, only two were sufficiently well-preserved for metallographic and compositional analysis. Nonetheless, one object (a ring) was identified as bloomery iron, and the other (a belt-buckle) was shaped using cast iron. We propose that the mid Warring States period can be viewed as a time when both bloomery and cast iron were used in the Qin State, prior to the massive adoption of cast iron smelting from the Central Plains in the late Warring States period.

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来源期刊

Archaeological Research in Asia ARCHAEOLOGY-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

13.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Archaeological Research in Asia presents high quality scholarly research conducted in between the Bosporus and the Pacific on a broad range of archaeological subjects of importance to audiences across Asia and around the world. The journal covers the traditional components of archaeology: placing events and patterns in time and space; analysis of past lifeways; and explanations for cultural processes and change. To this end, the publication will highlight theoretical and methodological advances in studying the past, present new data, and detail patterns that reshape our understanding of it. Archaeological Research in Asia publishes work on the full temporal range of archaeological inquiry from the earliest human presence in Asia with a special emphasis on time periods under-represented in other venues. Journal contributions are of three kinds: articles, case reports and short communications. Full length articles should present synthetic treatments, novel analyses, or theoretical approaches to unresolved issues. Case reports present basic data on subjects that are of broad interest because they represent key sites, sequences, and subjects that figure prominently, or should figure prominently, in how scholars both inside and outside Asia understand the archaeology of cultural and biological change through time. Short communications present new findings (e.g., radiocarbon dates) that are important to the extent that they reaffirm or change the way scholars in Asia and around the world think about Asian cultural or biological history.