A Complex History of Human-Environment Interaction Revealed by the Study of Metal Production Industries in Imperial China

Summary

The study of technology with archaeological science approaches is a powerful proxy for investigating the history of human-environment interactions and provides essential information which could not be revealed by other types of evidence. This great potential was however not fully exploited in previous works. Here we present an on-going project of archaeometallurgical investigation of 7th-15th century silver-lead production sites in China. Environmental history study agreed that during this period, mineral coal replaced charcoal and became the main fuel of metal industry in China. Our investigation however reveals this is a rather complex and uneven process. In the more arid and densely populated north China coal-fired tubular crucibles were widely adopted in this period. In contrast, the south China smelters continued the more traditional furnace smelting process. More interestingly, crucible technology seems not to be embraced by iron and copper smelters until early modern period. Even in north China, large scale iron smelters still use charcoal rather than mineral coal. This work showcases the power of archaeological study of technology in enhancing our understanding of the complex history of human-environment interactions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20552