The Making of Bronzes and Frontiers: An Archaeometallurgical Case Study of Bronze Finds in Southern Hunan, China, from 475 BCE–220 CE

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In both historical texts and modern narratives, the southern frontiers of China throughout the Pre- and Early Imperial era have been oversimplified as a geographical and cultural composite with underdeveloped conditions that have been slowly, but effectively, penetrated by the more civilized, powerful central state. This research aims to break such conceptual bias and provide innovative insights into the frontier study using a microscopic case study of the bronze objects in Chenzhou, Hunan, unearthed from graves dating to the Warring States to Eastern Han periods. Through integrating a metallurgical perspective with the typological study and employing a theoretical framework of frontier study to organize multiple lines of analytical results, this research examines the diachronic changes on bronze production and consumption patterns in the region and contemplates the social reaction to external stimulations and inner epistemological transformation of this frontier society under a sociopolitical background of imperial transition. It also highlights a dynamic, multidimensional frontier style that characterizes the southern frontiers and further enriches the concept of “Sinicization” through interpreting the material traces of interregional interactions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33544