Gold and silver production in imperial China : technological choices in their social-economic and environmental settings
The production of gold and silver was of major importance for almost all ancient societies around the world but has been rarely studied archaeologically. The high flexibility of this production process allows it to be conducted through various technological routes, while the choice among these potential routes was mainly determined by the producers' social-economic and environmental settings. The comparison of these choices in different settings can therefore reveal information about numerous facets of ancient societies. The subject of this thesis is to study the gold and silver smelting technology in imperial China based on archaeological materials from the sites of Baojia, Mengshan and Yanchuan, all broadly dated to the Tang-Yuan period (7th-14th century AD). The archaeometallurgical approaches were employed to investigate the production remains such as slag, furnace fragment, crucible and fuel-ash slag directly generated from the smelting processes, and to reconstruct the chaiÌne opeÌratoire for these three sites. A range of unique technologies identified at these sites depicted a diversified picture of gold and silver production in imperial China. Iron reduction process (IRP) and iron oxide reduction
Liu, S.
Gold and silver production in imperial China : technological choices in their social-economic and environmental settings. The production of gold and silver was of major importance for almost all ancient societies around the world but has been rarely studied archaeologically. The high flexibility of this production process allows it to be conducted through various technological routes, while the choice among these potential routes was mainly determined by the producers' social-economic and environmental settings. The comparison of these choices in different settings can therefore reveal information about numerous facets of ancient societies. The subject of this thesis is to study the gold and silver smelting technology in imperial China based on archaeological materials from the sites of Baojia, Mengshan and Yanchuan, all broadly dated to the Tang-Yuan period (7th-14th century AD). The archaeometallurgical approaches were employed to investigate the production remains such as slag, furnace fragment, crucible and fuel-ash slag directly generated from the smelting processes, and to reconstruct the chaiÌne opeÌratoire for these three sites. A range of unique technologies identified at these sites depicted a diversified picture of gold and silver production in imperial China. Iron reduction process (IRP) and iron oxide reduction
gold_silver production imperial_china technological_choice social_economic environmental_setting production gold_silver major importance almost ancient_society around_world rarely study archaeologically high flexibility production_process allow conduct various technological route choice among potential route mainly determine producer social_economic environmental_setting comparison choice different setting therefore reveal information numerous facet ancient_society subject study gold_silver smelt technology imperial_china base archaeological_material site broadly date period archaeometallurgical approach_employ investigate production_remain slag furnace fragment crucible fuel ash slag directly generate smelt_process reconstruct chaiine_opeiratoire three_site range unique technology identify site depict diversified picture gold_silver production imperial_china iron reduction process iron oxide reduction