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Natural Science in Archaeology

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7.8 T<strong>in</strong> (Sn) M<strong>in</strong>erals 175<br />

Fig. 7.11 T<strong>in</strong> deposits <strong>in</strong> Ch<strong>in</strong>a and nearby areas<br />

to cast large and <strong>in</strong>tricate vessels. A s<strong>in</strong>gle bronze vessel from Anyang dat<strong>in</strong>g<br />

to 1200 BCE weighed 875 kg. This metallurgy was based on a three-component<br />

bronze: copper, t<strong>in</strong>, and lead. Noth<strong>in</strong>g remotely comparable to the Shang bronzes<br />

<strong>in</strong> total quantity is known elsewhere <strong>in</strong> the ancient world. The Ch<strong>in</strong>ese had mastered<br />

the separate skills of prospect<strong>in</strong>g, m<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g, extraction, metallurgy, alloy<strong>in</strong>g,<br />

and cast<strong>in</strong>g.<br />

In the territory of the former Soviet Union, Russian archaeologists believe that<br />

t<strong>in</strong> was first m<strong>in</strong>ed on the slopes of the Caucasus Mounta<strong>in</strong>s <strong>in</strong> the second to first<br />

centuries BCE. Later, <strong>in</strong> the fourth to n<strong>in</strong>th centuries CE, t<strong>in</strong> was recovered along<br />

the western slopes of the Urals (Lev<strong>in</strong>e and Bond 1994).<br />

In Japan, with a relatively metal-poor geology, there are m<strong>in</strong>or lode deposits on<br />

Honshu (Taylor 1979) and Kyushu (Fig. 7.12). Many of the lodes conta<strong>in</strong> copper.<br />

Bronze was <strong>in</strong>troduced <strong>in</strong>to Japan from the Han Dynasty <strong>in</strong> Ch<strong>in</strong>a (Penhallurick<br />

1986), and much of the early copper and t<strong>in</strong> undoubtedly came from Ch<strong>in</strong>a.

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