347

ON

THE

COPPER

AGE

IN

ANCIENT DONO. November

ancient stone and

CHINA

I.

By. Tsurumatsu Received

It material made days, time from to back has of in the to been those Chou had use has been civilization of, then through time. sites that of Now, in the

September
generally began entered the it

21st, 1932.
believed at into ages has the the of also China age its fact and in

Published
that, in in

28th, 1932.
civilized implements has come iron relics stone supposed of deal up to lands, the were our

age,

which age bronze stated

metallic copper, been there China,

passing after old

and by the the now period a good

implements, unearthed age. to appearance of remains that, impleAs date

ancient bronze though This

existed it is

beginning remote yet days dynasty already

antiquity, unknown. which now (), been which

absolutely is it certified has of been very

exact by

exist, various

properly exquisite in in

recognized bronze

kinds

ments Chi or period

manufactured., is considered to Ch'in sentence

Further, be written dynasty can be

Chou-Li former or

K'ao-KungHan (O)

(XlHL) before that (D )-the

dynasty-namely following

(`) found:-

Chan-Kuo

The -that is, Chinese classics above for bronze there are cited, displays the following six mixtures according to their meaning uses.

This sentence makes us to infer that, in those days, according to the purposes in which . bronze was employed, the, proportions between
(1) Metallic tools which were used for taking fire focussing the sun-light.-

348

T. Dono.

Chin(1)()and may be said that alloys quite although of be found:_ Chou-Li . right

till the

in

bronze

were of

astonishingly those mentioned of to the be two

well metals in above

studied, and the sentence, of the In

and way

it by are

proportions were employed, the exist a

whichhose alMost time, chapter can

from

standpoint few points

alloyage corrected. the

recent another sentence

there

K'ao-Kung-Chi(

),

following

This shows us the casting process of bronze in those days. In these words, we can find that even in those ancient times, the coloured flame reaction was properly utilised to decide the best chance for casting (casting temperature) : namely, ancient Chinese founders performed the casting at the.time in which copper was molten entirely and evolved the blue flame of copper. Conclusively, we can say that at the time in which Chou-Li K'aoKung-Chi( vanced that iron knowledge weapons dynasty gradually most at the that parts end during of of )was about in China written, bronze. were they Besides appeared at the the were Han had already this, at beginning use made dynasty( of Ch'un-Ch'iu )and bronze-iron pure a rule, to bronze after the iron the the was end ages of of them. iron, it first possessed has time of been at Chan-Kao And the quite considered the end period age in to we can of ad-

Ch,un-Ch,iu ( ),and which be about the

J( )or increasing weapons former the ),

was considered

);therefore dynasty the upper age, age of and in

conclude Chan-Kao former end took bronze weapons, use for of its

intervals Ch'in

( ), age after China first of the

period( Han former appearance. and of evefy iron course being dynasty( Han

dynasty( waS )the as acCording said that even

)there dynasty( In archaeology, classified must be weapons

stone,copper, used upJ Han for to

materials nogiven of

it

tools except ).

fprmer

dynasty( As age in was ancient

described China
Chin by San-P'in( a ), little Po-Ch'n( ). this

above, has
means letter )-that after, ), But, was into

the been
not Chin, is, gold and

existence admitted
but copper,

of with
in

the

stone

and But
the into )and )-namely

the the
whole three

bronze exis.
metals species

certainty.
ancient by ), China colour

(1)Chin()J-Here were denoted

it was classified

so-called ( )-and Chin( or

Huang-Chin( called ), with universal denoted by a

Po-Chin(

Ch'ih-Chin Huang) copP6r of metals

five classes

Wu-Chin(

Ch'ih-Chin( in the general most was

Ch'ing-Chin( few and this exceptions,

)and it also

Hei-Chin( means kind

Hsuan-Chin( Perhaps copper

alone. at that

representative letter Chin().

times;therefczare

copper

On

the

Copper

Age

in Ancient

China

I.

349

tence of the copper age in China has been considered in question, and even if it has really existed, its annalistic age would be beyond our imagination, on account of the want of copper implements which have never been discovered up to the present time (the word of copper does not mean chemically pure copper, but it means copper which is not artificially mixed with tin. Therefore it is allowable for the existence of other metals than tin, as impurities or from other standpoints). As is well known, however, many remains of copper implements were discovered in ancient Egypt and other civilized lands, and it is said that in Egypt copper implements were used during long times, but this metal having been found too soft, several methods of copper-hardening were devised by Egyptian and after long and elavorated studies, bronze was at last brought into the world. In ancient China, there-

fore, the appearance of the bronze age after the stone age, skipping
over the copper age, as is generally considered, seems somewhat improper, regarded from the orders of transition of utilization of metal. Taking these points in consideration, author has always suspected that
the copper not age been must also have existed in China like in Egypt, although it has confirmed.

Fig.

1.

Specimen

A:

Fig.

2.

Specimen

B.

Quite recently author could have an occasion to carry out chemical studies of several crude spear-heads (Figs. 1, 2 and 3), for the kind deliverance of which he is very much indebted to the Archaeological

350

Dono.

Institute These from of the

of

the

Faculty closely in Ho-Nan

of

Literature resemble Province

of with

the the

Tokyo relics in

Imperial recently China. Chinese could lines). be here like called confirm in detect

University. unearthed The results

spear-heads Yin site

(u) that these (indeed as very must thus the will be he copper in no ancient we faint rather could age

chemical no by arc

analyses

showed amount analysis, of but

spear-heads the Now, copper that, Egypt the culon metal author imin

contain only can

significant spectral that than these

tin

conclude

spear-heads ones and also This

plements ancient and tural other history The

bronze there lands. China. of the

China,

existed

ancient

civilized of

less

interest

results

chemical

analyses

are

as

follows:-

As will be seen in these results of chemical analyses, the total values are considerably less than 100%; among these, the specimen C is only about 85% in total. Author believes that this is due to the oxides which goes far into the inner part of the material and, there-

Fig. 4. Specimen A (Surface).

Fig. 5.

Specimen

A (Etched

surface).

On the

Copper

Age

in Ancient

China

I.

351

Fig. 6.

Specimen

A (Cross section).

Fig. 7.

Specimen

A (Etched

cross section).

Fig. 8.

Specimen

B (Surface).

Fig.

9.

Specimen

B (Etched

surface).

Fig.

10.

Specimen

C (Surface).

Fig. 11.

Specimen

C (Etched

surface).

fore, a considerable amount of oxygen should be added to the elements above analysed. This can also be confirmed by the metallographical photograms (enlarged 100 times and etched by the solution of ammoniacal hydrogen-peroxide). It may be considered that the oxides in these specimens were produced by the following two causes : (1) as the technique of casting was still in its infancy in those days, oxidation

352 T.Dono.

was not properly prevented at the time of melting, and (2) the materials have passed so long time as many thousand years, so that oxidation took place unartificially. As for lead which is contained often in considerable quantities in the samples, it is hardly possible to think that it came from copper ores and it must rather be considered that this metallic element was artificially added in order to increase the fluidity of molten copper and to make the casting mare easy. It will be no doubt that the other metals than copper and lead detected in the samples are contained as impurities which were impossible to be eliminated by the primitive metallurgical technique of those ancient days. In conclusion, the author expresses his sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Y. Shibata, Prof. Dr. S. Kato and Prof. Dr. K. Kimura for their kind guidances, and to Prof. Dr. Y. Harada, Dr. K. Komai and Dr. N. Egami in the Archaeological Institute of the Faculty of Literature of Tokyo Imperial University, who offered the invaluable specimens for his chemical research, and also to Prof. Dr. T. Mishima for the trouble of taking the metallographical photographs.
Summary.

(1) said that and unearthed they contain (2) means ments (3) copper of the (4) factured at lowed about that Chemical age copper of ever

Three

specimens from, mainly significant the and chemical they in are Yin of site

of

ancient (u) added of studies, regarded tin.

Chinese were with analysed,

spear-heads and it

which was of

are found lead

consist no From bronze discovered The in

copper amount

certain

quantities

all as

these the

spear-heads first pure

are copper

by imple-

no

China. opinion which must must that (u), if thus be these the and the pure negates be admitted. specimens copper of were age the in actually China bronze manuexisted age folthe existence and the of the pure

prevailing ancient age is Yin in

China China

abandoned,

existence

It in Yin

supposed dynasty

dynasty age. Institute,

(u),

beginning

Faculty of

of

Science,

Imperial

University

Tokyo.

1933]

On the Copper Age in Ancient

China.

11.

133

ON THE COPPER AGE IN ANCIENT

CHINA.

II.

(ON THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD BETWEEN THE COPPER AND BRONZE AGE IN ANCIENT CHINA.) By TsurumatsuDONO ReceivedMarch 15th, 1933. PublishedApril 28th, 1933.
In the previous paper, the present author reported(1) the results of chemical analyses of some metallic spear-heads of ancient China, which were made of almost pure copper. These specimens studied possess very primitive appearances and seem to belong to extremely antique species closely resembling to those relics unearthed from Yin Site in Honan. By this chemical investigation, the existence of the pure copper implements in ancient China being first confirmed, the author came to the conclusion that the real presence of the copper age in China preceding probably to the well known bronze age must be considered. Encouraged by this discovery, the author has hereafter endeavoured to search for the specimens of the same kind as those recently analysed, in order to extend his study in this side. Fortunately several halberds in the type of those unearthed in Yin Site were put at his disposal by Mr. Sugimura in Peping,_to whose kindness the author is very much indebted (compare Figs. I, II and III). According to the chemical study of these new specimens by the author, it was proved that one (A) of these three halberds contains so insignificant amount of tin that the arc spectral analysis was only able to detect the presence of this metal as several very
(1) Dono, this Bulletin, 7 (1932), 347.

134

T. Dono.

[Vol. 8,

Fig.

1.

Specimen

Fig. 2.`

Specimen

Fig. 3.

Specimen

faint lines, and consequently this specimen must be called the pure copper implement. The second one (B) involves tin in the amount detectable by an ordinary chemical analysis, namely about 0.60%(2): even this, however, it must be classified in the copper implement from its very low contents in tin compared with ordinary bronze. As for the last specimen (C), it showed indeed a considerably high contents of tin (Sn = 2.19%) and it will undoubtedly be called a bronze implement in spite of that this is in the same type with the other two. From the latter interesting fact, it may easily be concluded that the specimen (C) should have been manufactured in the transitional period between the copper and bronze age, and further that the copper age in ancient China existed very probably closely before the bronze age. It may also be supposed that the bronze age in ancient China should have begun at the time in which these types of halberds were made use of. Experimental Part. The chemical analysis as well as the metallographical study were carried out in the usual way(3) and the constituents, which are scarcely detected by the chemical methods, were found from their so called "raies ultimes" of the arc spectra. The results are given below.
(2) This low contents in tin must not be considered that this metal artificially. (3) T. Dono, J. Chem. Soc. Japan, 51 (1930) 463; 53 (1932), 100. was added

1933]

On the Copper

Age in Ancient

China.

II.

135

Fig. 4.

Specimen

Fig. 5.

Specimen

A (etched)

Fig.

6.

Specimen

Fig. 7.

Specimen

B (etched)

136

T. Dono.

[Vol. 8,

Fig.

8.

Specimen

Fig. 9.

Specimen C (etched)

As will be seen in the analytical results given above, the total values do not attain to 100%; this is, as was stated in the previous paper, due to oxygen which combined probably with metals during and after the manufacture of these weapons. As for the meaning of the existence of other metals was also already explained in the preceding paper. Thus the author could add two more examples of pure copper implements in the ancient Chinese relics and was able to strengthen the recognition of the existence of the copper age in ancient China. The fact, that one of specimens now studied was of bronze, tells us that the beginning of the bronze age may be considered to have occurred at the time in which these types of halberds were made use of. In conclusion, the author expresses his sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Shibata, Prof. Dr. S. Kato and Prof. Dr. K. Kimura for their kind guidances, and to Prof. Dr. Y. Harada, Dr. Y. Komai and Dr. N. Egami in the Archaeological Institute of the Faculty of Literature of Tokyo Imperial University, who gave valuable advices to his investigation from the standpoint of Archaeology and also to Prof. Dr. T. Mishima for the trouble of taking the metallographical photographs. Chemical Institute, Faculty of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo.