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The bronze artifacts from the Yejiashan site and the political presence of the Zhou dynasty in the middle Yangtze Plain: an application of lead isotope analysis

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Abstract

Lead isotope ratios of 15 Chinese bronze artifacts from the Yejiashan site (Suizhou City, Hubei Province) were analyzed and compared with copper ores across China. This study attempts to provide a new perspective to discuss the role that Zeng State played among all the vassal states in the early Zhou dynasty (ca. 1046–977 BC). The political presence of the Zhou dynasty in the middle Yangtze Plain is another main content of this paper. The lead isotopic characteristics of Chinese bronze artifacts between different historical periods are also in the scope of the study. By comparison, the lead isotopic ratios of the tested bronzes and copper deposits in the north Jiangxi Province show numerous overlaps. It indicates that the tested bronzes might have a single ore source, and this source was in the south of the Zhou dynasty. Combined with history and archaeological records, it is highly likely that the middle Yangtze Plain might be a part of the Zhou dynasty since the very beginning. Moreover, Zeng State might have a great influence in the ancient middle Yangtze Plain, and the nobles of Zeng State might even have authority to supervise certain area extending to Jiujiang. As lead isotopes of the bronzes appear to show a clear relation to chronology, the change of lead isotope patterns across times may further serve to distinguish the bronzes of the Western Zhou dynasty from the late Shang ones.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the Junior Fellowships for CAST Advanced Innovation Think-tank Program (DXB-2KQN-2016-031), the National Scholarship Fund of China (CSC No. 201404910198), the Special Foundation for Young Scholar’s Teaching and Research in Scientific History at Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015), the National Social Science Fund of China (No. 13BKG004), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41471167). The authors would also like to thank the Research Reactor Center at University of Missouri for supporting Dr. Luo Wugan’s 1-year visit in USA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Di Mu

  2. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, People’s Republic of China

    Di Mu, Wugan Luo & Guoding Song

  3. Department of Archaeometry, School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Di Mu, Wugan Luo & Guoding Song

  4. Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Wuhan, 430077, People’s Republic of China

    Fengchun Huang

Authors
  1. Di Mu
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  2. Wugan Luo
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  3. Fengchun Huang
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  4. Guoding Song
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wugan Luo.

Additional information

Di Mu and Wugan Luo contributed equally to the manuscript and should be regarded as co-first authors.

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Table S1

An English-Chinese comparison table for proper nouns in the text. (DOC 329 kb)

Table S2

The time intervals of the period in the text. (DOC 31 kb)

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Mu, D., Luo, W., Huang, F. et al. The bronze artifacts from the Yejiashan site and the political presence of the Zhou dynasty in the middle Yangtze Plain: an application of lead isotope analysis. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 10, 1547–1555 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0478-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0478-5

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