A Preliminary Study Of Ancient Bronzes Excavated From Jijiayuan Tombs

Bronze antique is an important part of our country's historical and cultural heritage and is extremely important materials to the study of human history , culture, art and ancient metal smelting technology development.After millenniums of vicissitude, most of the existing bronze artifacts are undergoing various degree of corrosion, and the corrosion characteristics are various between different buried environments.At the same time, studies of bronze mineral sources, is not only a crucial archaeological problem of bronze culture, but also the focus and the difficulty of metallurgical archaeology.In this paper,first of all,major elements and trace elements were analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) on the bronze matrix.By the tracer method of trace elements, excluded impact on the trace elements from Pb-Sn, bronze mineral sources were discussed. The results showed that most of bronze samples excavated from Jijiayuan Tombs are similar to crude bronze samples of Anhui Tongling and Hubei Tonglvshan.Furthermore, mineral compositions of the bronze pieces in the corrosion products of Jijiayuan cemetery unearthed bronze were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Corrosion product analysis found no chloride harmful rust.Finally,the microstructure of the bronzes matrix were observed with bronze microscope observation, together with buried environmental investigation ,indicating the corrosive characteristics, The results show that the corrosion mechanism is of intergranular corrosion. The result of this study is good reference value to bronze protection and to ancient bronze culture exchange research.