Recognising values of China’s scenic and historic interest areas as world heritage cultural landscapes: Lushan case study

ABSTRACT

China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas are a major contributor to the State’s World Heritage lexicon. However, understanding of their values has led to confusion internationally and in China, not least with controversy over China’s latest promotion of the Natural Protected Areas System. This paper discusses values of China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas from the cultural landscape perspective through an in-depth case study of Lushan. A theoretical framework for recognising values of China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas has been set up and tested at Lushan, including exploring stakeholders’ understanding of its values as a world heritage site by using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The findings reveal that Lushan clearly represents cultural values inextricably associated with Scenic and Historic Interest Areas, and also need for supplementary advice on its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). It suggests that the ideology driving management of China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas as national parks or natural parks focusing mainly on objective nature-related conservation without regard to the traditional Chinese philosophy of the culture-nature binary will adversely affect China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas as cultural landscapes and their community values.     

河南荥阳官庄遗址陶范物源及制作工艺分析

Guanzhuang site is located in the west of Guanzhuang Village, Gaocun Township, Xingyang City, Henan Province. From the site, more than 3 000 pottery moulds have been unearthed, with various types, including the moulds for containers, tools, chariots, weapons, money and core, etc. According to the types and decorations of pottery moulds and the characteristics of co - existing pottery, the pottery moulds of Guanzhuang site can be divided into two periods—Phase I dating from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn Period, and phase TJ considered between the early and middle Spring and Autumn Period. The change of bronze ware styles from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period was important in the development of ancient Chinese bronze wares. Due to the lack of archaeological data, research on pottery moulds during the two - week period was still insufficient; discussion of the important issue of standardizing the sources of raw materials was also relatively weak. Environmental archaeology has relatively mature methods and practices in depositional dynamics, depositional processes and provenance tracing, which could provide new ideas for further in - depth discussions on this issue. In order to understand the material sources and craftsmanship of pottery moulds unearthed from Guanzhuang site in Xingyang, Henan Province, samples of Guanzhuang pottery moulds and natural sedimentary strata were studied using particle size analysis, XRF and petrographic analysis to give the following results. 1) The raw materials for mould - making were taken from the late Pleistocene Malan loess layer under the cultural layer of the site. The Malan loess underwent simple manual elutriation before being used to make pottery moulds. 2) A small amount of plant ash and calcium nodule powder was added during the production process of pottery moulds as an admixture to increase the high - temperature resistance. 3) The inner side of pottery mould for container was mainly made of Malan loess, while the outer one was made of a mixture of Malan loess and river sand with a blending ratio of about 7:5. Pottery moulds for various ware types had different processing techniques (e.g., moulds for containers were more refined). Besides, compared with early pottery moulds, later ones are relatively rougher, but the difference is not obvious. 4) The petrographic characteristics of double - layer container moulds indicate that there are different production processes for the inner and outer sides of mould. The inner side was made of Malan loess with finer particles—below 100 μm—as the raw material after elutriation, and there were traces of directional trimming. The outer one was made of a mixture of two parts of minerals (coarse and fine), and there was no obvious processing trace. Analysis of sample particle size is a new attempt to discuss the material sources of pottery moulds. The related discussion of mud - clarifying ponds is also helpful to understand the function of such relics and the formation process of accumulation in them. This study has important reference significance for exploring the material and craft characteristics of pottery moulds before and after the early Spring and Autumn Period in the Central Plains. © 2023, Sciences of Conservation and Archaeology. All Rights Reserved.     

古籍墨迹的老化检测及其模拟实验研究

随着纸质文物保护工作的推进,针对古籍纸张载体的保护研究已逐步深入,但对于古籍纸张上的墨、颜料等其他写印材料的保护及写印材料之间的相互作用则亟待研究。其中,古籍墨迹的老化研究有助于揭示墨与纸相互作用的本质,对于古籍文物的保护具有非常重要的意义。以复旦大学图书馆藏古籍《三十二兰亭室诗存》墨迹的老化现象为出发点,通过显微镜观察、表面pH值测定、显微拉曼(micro-Raman)和傅里叶变换红外(FT-IR)光谱法等多种无损、微损的检测手段多尺度分析了墨迹泛黄的现象,结果显示墨迹处及周边黄晕纤维与空白部分纤维相比,光泽缺失且略显糟朽,酸性更强,表面氧化基团增多,说明墨可能对纸张的老化降解产生了影响。通过设计纸墨浸润模拟老化实验对此进行验证,结果显示与偏中性墨汁相比,尽管墨汁中胶料对纤维有一定保护作用,但偏酸性墨汁对纸张老化的促进作用使pH值、抗张性能及耐折性能的下降趋势更明显,聚合度保留率也较低。墨字模拟老化实验佐证了前述结论,使用酸性更强的墨汁书写的字迹,周围纸张酸性更强,色差也更显著。以上结果表明,墨汁的酸碱性质对纸张的老化降解进程有很重要的影响。这不仅揭示出古籍存藏过程中受墨影响的纸张老化机制以及模拟实验合理设计对于系统探究老化机制及纸墨相互作用的重要性,也对古籍保护工作范畴的扩大和策略的制定具有指导意义,并为修复用墨的研制提供了思路。     

基于明胶微球的新型彩绘文物保护材料的可行性分析与预实验研究

彩绘类文物的彩绘研究和提取保护是考古工作的重点。但彩绘类文物因其自身的脆弱性而难以保存，需要进行一定的修复加固保护。现有加固保护材料由于大多与文物本体材质存在差异，致使加固保护长时间后，会与本体形成开裂，甚至剥离，宏观表现为“保护性破坏”。本研究着眼于使用彩绘类文物中传统的胶结材料，即动物明胶，但因明胶特有的溶胶-凝胶性，难以直接在文物上使用。因此，本研究首次提出将明胶微米化、纳米化，以“先渗透，再交联”的方式，有效回避明胶的溶胶-凝胶性，实现原材料保护修复。实验使用条件温和的乳化交联法，制备出尺寸为2～4μm的明胶微球，使用扫描电镜、红外光谱对其进行表征，并在模拟彩绘样块上进行透气性以及大红染色观察渗透性等的实验，初步证明作为加固剂的明胶微球新材料基本符合文物保护材料的标准要求。在今后更多的实验测试下，明胶微球有望投入使用。