Home Classical, Ancient Near Eastern & Egyptian Studies The development and formation of soldering technique on the bronze ritual vessel casting of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties
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The development and formation of soldering technique on the bronze ritual vessel casting of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties

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Published/Copyright: November 13, 2018
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Abstract

This paper concerns the development of soldering in early China. Soldering requires the use of an additional heating of metal to join two or more existing metal items together. The paper defines the different soft and hard soldering materials. It also describes the evolution from joining two pieces, an animal head and a vessel with additional pour of bronze as an extension of the casting process. The next step was the use of hard solder, using bronze or copper related materials. There were two ways to join the existing bronze sections: the most common was “tenon soldering”. Less common but equally significant was “injection soldering”. In the late Spring-and-Autumn Period, soft soldering with tin and lead was developed. This step allowed much more extravagant decoration of bronzes, leading to new bronze vessel styles and also to much greater sub-division of labor in the production process.


Postscript

The original paper published in Kaogu 考古 (Archaeology) 2018.2:88–98 was authored by Changping Zhang 张昌平. This English version is translated by Xiaojia Tang 唐小佳 and Beichen Chen 陈北辰 and revised by Dame Jessica Rawson 杰西卡·罗森爵士.


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Published Online: 2018-11-13
Published in Print: 2018-11-27

© 2018 by Walter de Gruyter, Inc. · Boston · Berlin

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. New archaeological discoveries
  3. The Banlashan Cemetery of Hongshan Culture in Chaoyang City, Liaoning
  4. Surveys and excavations in 2014–2016 at Shijiahe Site in Tianmen City, Hubei
  5. The Imperial City Terrace Locality of the Shimao City Site in Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province
  6. The Jartai Pass Site in Nilka County, Xinjiang
  7. Reports
  8. The excavation of the Modaoshan Site of the Paleolithic Age in Yunan County, Guangdong
  9. The excavation of the Daxi Cultural remains at Dashuitian Site in Wushan County, Chongqing
  10. The excavation of the Wujiachang Cemetery in Fuquanshan Site, Shanghai in 2010
  11. The Shang burials at the Yangjiawan Locality of the Panlongcheng Site in Wuhan
  12. The excavation of burial M89 at Tiesan Road at the Yinxu Site in Anyang, Henan
  13. The excavation of the burial M8 at the Zhoujiazhai Cemetery in Suizhou, Hubei
  14. The recovering of the Qianfosi cliff sculptures in Tongnan County, Chongqing
  15. Research
  16. On the subsistence types of the Xiantouling Culture
  17. On the origin and formation of the early Qin Culture
  18. On the provenance study method of the archaeological relics based on styles and distributions
  19. Maitreya statues in the Southern Dynasties and the incarnation of Fu Dashi as Maitreya
  20. A preliminary research on the burials of the Mongol Khanate period and Yuan Dynasty in northern area
  21. The emergence and early utilization of domestic sheep in Xinjiang
  22. The development and formation of soldering technique on the bronze ritual vessel casting of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties
  23. Brief report on the laboratory archaeology of the tomb M1 at Dahekou
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