A Study On The Exploitation Of Ore Sources Of Metal For Bronzes And The Relationship Between The Exploitation And Civilizations In Shang And Zhou Dynasties

It is well known that a great deal of excavated bronzes belong to Shang and Zhou dynasties, a developing and prosperous period of China’s bronze culture, however, as to the raw materials and their exploitation for bronze casting, it is still an unsolved issue that concerned by scholars for a long time. Thus, this dissertation firstly and mainly focuses on this issue, and then analyses the relationship between the exploitation of raw materials and the civilizations of Shang and Zhou dynasties, combined with the achievements of recent scientific archaeology and archaeology studies, as well as a multi-method analysis.Chapter one includes a discussion on the study methodology. Up until now, it is still difficult to make clear where the ore for bronze casting was from, due to the lack of enough discoveries of ancient mining and smelting sites. For this reason, chapter one figures out that in order to conquer this difficulty different methods are needed, especially the methods of historical documents analysis, scientific archaeology studies as well as comprehensive researches, etc.Chapter two studies the exploitation and the possible provenance of the ore during Shang dynasty. As to the copper material, Shang court obtained them from the Mt. Zhongtiao copper ore zone that locates in the Central Plain, whereas the majority of the copper material exploited from the middle Yangtze River area copper ore zone mainly supported local use while perhaps only a minority was input to the Shang court. As to the tin ore, it is abundant in the middle Yangtze River area and western Liaoning province, may be exploited during Shang. Jiangxi and Hunan of the middle Yangtze River area should be considered as the supply place for the Shang court.Chapter three analyses the relationship between the ore exploitation and the Shang civilization. On one hand, there are three different ways for obtaining ore materials in three different times, changing with the differences of the Shang’s power and territory. On the other hand, since tin, the indispensable metal for bronze casting, were mostly from Jiangxi and Hunan, it is extremely possible exist a crucial route for tin’s (as well as a portion of copper’s) transportation during Shang, which could be called "the route for tin’s and copper’s transportation"Chapter four focuses on the exploitation and the provenance of the ore during Western Zhou dynasty. Compared with Shang, the significant change of Zhou is the expanding of the material exploitation areas, for a reason of the wide use of the new smelting technology in Copper Sulfide ores, particularly in southern Anhui province, weighed heavily upon the political and economical situation of Western Zhou.Chapter five discusses the relationship between the ore exploitation and the Western Zhou civilization. At first, the author points out that the formation of the ritual society, based on the patriarchal clan system, directly leads to the requirement of the ritual bronzes, and the area expanding of the ore exploitation. Then, the author considers that one of the motivations of the war between Western Zhou and the south native states was not fighting for copper materials as many scholars mentioned, but for tin materials, with an aim of maintaining the tin transportation route unobstructed.Chapter six explores the relationship between the ore exploitation and the Eastern Zhou civilization. Attributing to the popularization of the ore mining, smelting, and the bronze casting technology, as well as the increasing demand of economy development and wars, the requirement to the raw materials for bronze casting expanded rapidly, and therefore the ore mining also developed fast. Besides, the circulation ways were more than former times in Eastern Zhou, along with the allowance of the participation of the private industrial and commercial owners in the exploitation of ore sources.