再论"失蜡工艺不是中国青铜时代的选择"

本文从技术史的理论角度论述了"没有需求就没有发明(No need,no invention)"、"没有需求就没有发展"等技术产生发展的客观规律,指出,中国古代(青铜时代)在发达而成体系的青铜范铸技术环境里是不可能孕育发展出"熔模铸造体系"的,并以曾侯乙尊盘的铸造工艺及相关的模拟实验结果作进一步的论证;同时,对中国古代"失蜡工艺"起源于商周青铜器"焚失法"的观点提出质疑,并指出,"失蜡工艺"是在佛教传入中国之后,为铸造"西洋风格"的佛像传入我国.     

Tell Abraq during the second and first millennia BC: site layout,spatial organisation,and economy

Research recommenced at Tell Abraq in 2007, carried out by Bryn Mawr College with an international team in co‐operation with the Sharjah Archaeology Authority. Between 2007 and 2010 fieldwork was limited to documenting sections of the previous excavations and one small sounding while our attention focused mainly on the nearby shell‐midden site of Hamriya and the fortified Iron Age settlement site of Muweilah. Since 2010, large‐scale excavations have been conducted which have fundamentally altered our understanding of the layout of the settlement and its economic relations during the second and first millennia BC. In this report, we detail the results of this work and present preliminary interpretations.     

Smelting and recycling evidences from the Late Bronze Age habitat site of Baiões (Viseu,Portugal)

Many aspects of bronze production during Late Bronze Age in Western Europe are so far unknown. In the present study selected artefact fragments and metallurgical debris, which include a slag fragment, from the emblematic Late Bronze Age habitat site of Castro da Senhora da Guia de Baiões (Viseu, Portugal) have been studied by optical microscopy, micro-EDXRF, SEM–EDS and XRD. Evidences were found for bronze production involving smelting and recycling. Compositional analysis showed that the artefacts are made of a bronze with 13 ± 3 wt.% Sn (average and one standard deviation) and a low impurity pattern, namely <0.1 wt.% Pb, being comparable with the composition of other bronzes from the same region (the Central Portuguese Beiras). This alloy is generally different from elsewhere Atlantic and Mediterranean bronzes, which show frequently slightly lower Sn contents and higher impurity patterns, namely Pb which is often present as an alloying element. The present study gives further support to early proposals suggesting the exploration of the Western Iberian tin resources during Late Bronze Age, and besides that, it indicates that metalworking and smelting could have been a commonplace activity requiring no specific facilities, being bronze produced at a domestic scale in this Western extreme of Europe.     

Regional and interregional networks of ancient Eleon during the early 12th century BCE as seen from the petrographic and neutron activation analyses of pottery

In this article, we present the results of application of petrographic and neutron activation analyses to a group of pottery fragments dating to the 12th century BCE deriving from ancient Eleon (Boeotia, Greece) as a means of investigating regional and interregional networks in which the site participated. Production centres in Boeotia and central Euboea provided, as could be expected, the majority of sampled pottery across various shapes. A number of more distant areas, however, such as eastern Attica, the Cyclades, Macedonia, and western Crete, are also documented in the present study, suggesting their products were available to local consumers at ancient Eleon. These results are discussed with reference to consumer preferences and exchange networks operating at that time. Finally, some of the identified petrographic and chemical groups can be securely identified at the macroscopic level, allowing us to arrive at conclusions pertinent to a substantial part of the entire pottery assemblage.     

Natural preservation mechanisms at play in a Bronze Age wooden shovel found in the copper mines of Alderley Edge

A wooden shovel, dating from the Early Bronze Age, has survived in a remarkable state of preservation in the copper mines of Alderley Edge, Cheshire UK. Other historic timbers recovered from the mines, whilst still intact, have fared less well. An X-ray investigation into the distribution of minerals through the shovel using portable X-ray Fluorescence (PXRF) along with the use of synchrotron-based X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) measurements of the copper and arsenic chemical speciations has provided clues to the methods by which metals from the mining environment have entered the wood of the shovel and ensured its survival. The distribution and nature of the minerals so determined suggest that the copper and arsenic, along with a significant lead content, entered the shovel during its original use in working mineral-rich deposits, rather than through the burial environment. The insights gained are expected to be applicable to other wooden artefacts recovered from ancient copper mines in other places.     

New Data on the Exploitation of Obsidian in the Southern Caucasus (Armenia,Georgia) and Eastern Turkey,Part 2: Obsidian Procurement from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Late Bronze Age

Within the framework of the French archaeological mission ‘Caucasus’, in a previous paper we have presented new geochemical analyses on geological obsidians from the southern Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia) and eastern Turkey. We present here the second part of this research, which deals with provenance studies of archaeological obsidians from Armenia. These new data enhance our knowledge of obsidian exploitation over a period of more than 14 000 years, from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Late Bronze Age. The proposed methodology shows that source attribution can be easily made by plotting element contents and element ratios on three simple binary diagrams. The same diagrams were used for source discrimination. As the southern Caucasus is a mountainous region for which the factor of distance as the crow flies cannot be applied, we have explored the capacity of the Geographic Information System to evaluate the nature and patterns of travel costs between the sources of obsidian and the archaeological sites. The role of the secondary obsidian deposits, which enabled the populations to acquire raw material at a considerable distance from the outcrops, is also considered.     

A review of archaeology in mainland Southeast Asia

This article outlines recent advances in establishing and understanding the prehistoric sequence in mainland Southeast Asia. Research has been unevenly distributed, varying from virtually none in Cambodia to a marked intensity in Hong Kong and the adjoining mainland. A new pattern is becoming apparent, due in no small part to the new findings in southern China. It is argued that despite its long history of occupation, beginning withHomo erectus almost a million years ago, tropical Southeast Asia was occupied by scattered inland groups and larger, possibly sedentary coastal foragers until exposed to intrusive agricultural societies during the third millennium BC. These communities, which originated ultimately in the Yangzi Valley, brought with them rice cultivation and were responsible for the wide distribution of Austroasiatic languages. The three divisions of this language superfamily are now distributed from eastern India to southern China. Following a relatively brief Neolithic period, small and autonomous communities, particularly in Lingnan and Bac Bo (Guangdong and Guangxi provinces of China and the area of the Red River Delta), were exposed to exchange contact with the Shang state of the Chinese Central Plains, and this brought exotic jades and bronzes. Within this context, a local bronze industry was established between 1500 and 1000 BC over much of Southeast Asia, but without any obvious social developments until the middle of the first millennium BC, when several major changes occurred. These incorporated iron smelting and forging and exposure in the southern parts of the region to Indian mercantile contact and along the northern margins to the expanding Chinese empire. Adaptations varied regionally, from the establishment of warrior chiefdoms to counter the Chinese to the construction of water control systems in the arid heart of Southeast Asia to alleviate environmental unpredictability. It is within these regional changes that we can identify trends toward the establishment of states, some of which persisted in an unbroken lineage to the present.     

萧梁钱范的残留物初步研究

为弄清镇江出土的萧梁钱范是铸造铜钱还是铁钱,或是两者兼铸。利用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)及其配备的X射线能谱仪(EDS),分析了出土的萧梁公式女钱范的残留物。钱范ZJ1的正、反面和胎的点扫描和面扫描分析结果表明,其应为铸造铜钱之范。而钱范ZJ2剖面的线扫描分析指出,其铜含量从正、反表面向胎的内部呈现明显的梯度分布,从而进一步验证了这些钱范铸造的是铜钱,而不是铁钱。     

几件青铜器的科学分析和修复

为对几件出土的青铜剑、青铜器和弯形器进行保护研究,用X射线探伤、X射线衍射、金相显微镜、扫描电镜和原子吸收光谱等方法对器物的形貌、成分及制作技术进行了分析。分析结果表明青铜剑0125的剑格和茎部锈层下有合范痕迹一些铸造小缺陷;弯形器腐蚀形态为均匀性腐蚀,枝晶间腐蚀和活性腐蚀;0108表面有合金层和褶皱,合范痕迹;0101、0102断面没有任何锈蚀及金属疲劳痕迹。器物经用不同方法清洗、铝箔局部还原处理、倍半碳酸钠浸泡和BTA缓蚀处理后,在相对湿度95％的环境中一周,没有发现新的锈蚀出现,达到良好的保护效果。表明科学分析方法在物保护和修复中是非常有用的,同时还可以获得关于考古学和历史学的很多信息。     

咸阳龚西战国秦墓出土铜壶制作工艺研究

咸阳龚西战国秦墓出土的青铜器为研究战国时期秦青铜容器的铸造技术提供了重要实物资料。本文对龚西战国晚期秦墓M8出土的两件铜壶,通过表面观察结合X光摄像考察其制作工艺痕迹,利用金相显微镜、扫描电镜能谱分析等手段开展成分及显微结构分析,揭示两件铜壶壶身及表面装饰的制作工艺、材质特征。结果显示,两件铜壶均为铸造,器底和铜环预先铸好后置于范中,与器身铸为一体。器身和器底均为铅锡青铜(铜锡铅三元合金),但成分有一定差异,镶嵌的装饰金属片为高铅青铜。铜壶的器底分铸工艺和高铅青铜镶嵌工艺为古代青铜器制作工艺研究提供了重要的新材料。