Centennial Archaeological Discoveries And Research Of Hunyuan Bronzes,in Shanxi Province(1923-2022)

As the earliest Eastern Zhou bronzes found in modern China,the Hunyuan Bronzes,with its exquisite art forms and superb casting techniques,has driven the evolutionary change from epigraphy to ancient artefactology throughout the growth of modern Chinese archaeology and profoundly influenced the development of sinology and art history overseas.The Hunyuan Bronzes reflect the casting techniques of the heyday of the Houma bronze casting site in Shanxi,while at the same time incorporating a wide range of bronze decorative styles from the northern cultural belt,resulting in a unique fusion of forms that is an important representative of the development of Chinese bronzes,whose high status,wide distribution and depth of study are rare in the history of Chinese archaeology.Based on the history of post-processualist archaeological thought and paradigm theory,this paper investigates the collection,documentation,investigation,excavation and research carried out by scholars at home and abroad around the Hunyuan Bronzes over the past century,and identifies four stages of development: 1.The exploratory period(1923-1931),when the Hunyuan Bronzes were preliminary transformed from a private collection of antiquities to an academic public object,driven by both antiquities dealers and scholars;2.The flourishing period(1931-1950),when the Hunyuan Bronzes triggered a chaotic situation of private competition and state acquisition,while at the same time creating a research boom in the three major academic fields of epigraphy,archaeology,and art history;3.The continuing period(1950-1992),when the ornamentation,inscriptions,tribal affiliation,country,periodization,dating,form,cultural connotation of the Hunyuan Bronzes became more widespread,laying the foundations for the next phase of research;4.The deepening period(1992-2022),The use of theories and techniques such as zonation theory,typology,inscriptions criticism on bronze and physical and chemical analysis led to significant progress in the study of Hunyuan Bronzes,and the inevitable trend towards interdisciplinary and comprehensive research.The above four stages fully illustrate the progression of a century of archaeological discovery and research on the Bronzes in Hunyuan,Shanxi province,from germination to maturity in a complex interweaving of academic sources,reflecting the dynamics of Chinese bronze and archaeology research in different contexts and academic trends.Over the past hundred years,thanks to the successive generations of epigraphy scholars,archaeologists and art history researchers,the Hunyuan Bronzes has produced fruitful research results that not only form an important part of Chinese archaeology,but also serve to build a history of archaeological thought,archaeological discovery,archaeology and the development of research methods,and provide a reference for the future development of the history of archaeology and the history of bronze research.In view of the current weaknesses of the emphasis on physical remains at the expense of excavated sites,the emphasis on bronzes at the expense of other excavated objects,the lack of documentation and compilation,and the low level of conservation and exploitation,this article argues that only by developing research perspectives,establishing a multidisciplinary research system,and improving the mechanism for the conservation and exploitation of cultural relics can the original historical landscape be restored and the level of research and exploitation improved.The article concludes with a chronology of the events surrounding the Hunyuan Bronzes over the past hundred years and a statistical table of the artefacts excavated at Liyu,providing the most comprehensive collection of artefacts excavated at Liyu to date.