Archaeologists have figured out how bronze was made in China 3,000 years ago

Ancient Chinese civilization is fraught witha huge number of mysteries. But aa some of them, scientists still manage to find answers. For example, not so long ago we talked about the fact that scientists managed to find out who the Xiaohe people are. And the other day, researchers seem to have uncovered the secrets of bronze production, the scale of which is simply amazing. From the tomb of Fu Hao, a Chinese general from the Shang Dynasty, archaeologists recovered one and a half tons of bronze items in the 70s of the last century. But scientists were even more surprised by the information they received from a 2,300-year-old text known as Kaogon ji. The data obtained suggests that the production of bronze in the Celestial Empire was much more difficult than previously thought.

3000 years ago, China was the leader in the production of copper products

Kaogon Jia - Technological Encyclopedia of Ancient China

Scientists have tried to decipher "Kaogon Jia" intofor decades. This text is a technological encyclopedia of ancient China. Some of its parts were written 2500 years ago. The book was included in the library of the Han Dynasty in the middle of the second century BC.

The text refers to the manufacture of not only bronze.Here you can even find information about how musical instruments and carriages were made in China. The rules for building cities are also described in detail. Among other things, the text contains six recipes for casting bronze items. For different items, such as axes, swords or vessels, bronze recipes are different.

Kaogon jia contains information on how bronze items were made in ancient China

However, all recipes contain two mainingredient - jin and si. But what are these components? In modern Chinese, "Jin" means gold. However, earlier the word could mean an alloy of copper or even just a metal. "Xi" is usually interpreted as tin, but the true meaning of this word in ancient China is also unknown.

Initially, scientists suggested that we are talking about an alloy of copper and tin. However, a large amount of lead was found in bronze products of that time.

Ancient bronze recipe

Consensus on the Ingredients of Jin andscientists do not have si. Therefore, the idea arose to find answers in the chemical analyzes of ancient bronze coins that had been carried out earlier. It must be said that the Kaogon Jia text does not say anything about the production of bronze coins. They were probably made at specialized mints under centralized administrative control. However, according to the researchers, the technologies could be similar.

Chinese bronze coins were made from two alloys

The results of the study of coins indicate thatmost often they are made from two alloys. One was made from copper, tin or lead, and the other from lead and copper, according to Antiquity.

Scholars speculate that initiallyalloys were made in the form of ingots, after which they were sent to bronze workshops, where finished products were cast from these ingots. However, the manufacture of products from ingots adds a number of complexities to the production, transportation and supply of metals. How the supply chain was organized in ancient China, scientists cannot say.

Is it too early to put an end to the ancient Chinese recipe for making bronze?

Not all experts agree with the conclusion thatbronze was produced from two pre-prepared alloys. In particular, the archeometallurgist Jianjun Mei, an associate at the University of Cambridge, casts doubt on this assertion. In his opinion, there are no analytical data that would confirm that jin and xi are not pure copper and tin. The fact is that questions arise about the Kaogon Jia book itself.

The nuances of the production of bronze products in ancient China are not completely known.

According to some experts, the text is nottechnical guidance. It was most likely written for the use of administrative overseers who oversaw the court artisans. Therefore, the technical information could be simplified as much as possible for a better understanding. That is, the text was not written by the artisans themselves and did not serve as a guide for them. For this reason, technical information is often vague and does not exactly match the data contained in other sources of ancient China.

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It follows that in the book the words “jin” and “si” could mean pure copper and tin. At the same time, the book simply does not mention the presence of other ingredients, such as lead.

Despite the scientists' possible error, JianjunMei is positive about trying to rethink ancient recipes. Knowledge of how bronze workshops worked and how products were made will help to better understand civilization. As for the production of bronze, scientists still need to work to draw final conclusions. Well, we finally recommend that you familiarize yourself with other archaeological mysteries, which to this day have no scientific explanation.