Natural Science in Archaeology

174 7 Metals and Related Minerals and Ores
An independent and extensive bronze metallurgy developed in southeast
Asia. The southeastern Asian tin belt is an elongate zone about 2800 km long
north/south and 400 km wide. It extends from Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand
to Malaysia and Indonesia (Fig. 7.10). Abundant cassiterite at or near the surface
along with regional copper deposits allowed the early development of bronze
metallurgy.
Additional tin deposits to the north in China led to the important evolution of
the Shang bronze metallurgy centered in Henan Province in the area of Zhengzhou
and Anyang (Fig. 7.11). The Chinese deposits are largely unrelated to the geology
of the deposits to the south. For a comprehensive review of the geology
of the southeastern Asian tin deposits, see Hutchinson (1988). At the onset of the
Chinese Bronze Age in the early second millennium BCE, the metalsmiths were
adding about 5% tin to the copper. By the late second millennium, the Shang
had developed a highly sophisticated bronze technology centered on the ability
Fig. 7.10 Southeast Asian tin
deposits