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Recent archaeological survey and excavation in China have demonstrated that large sites of the late fourth and third millennia BC were situated not on the Central Plains--where the later dynastic centres were located--but along the Yangtze and lower Yellow River Basins. Their decline in the late third and second millennia BC coincided with the growth of sites to the north of the Central Plains. Evidence for settlement size and a new chronology constructed from radiocarbon dates emphasise discontinuities in the geographic distribution of settlements, combined with continuity in cultural practices of ritual feasts and the use of symbolic jades. Keywords: China, Eurasia, Erlitou, Neolithic, settlement, vessel sets, jades, Introduction A well-established narrative explains the emergence of the early Chinese dynasties and the first states from the Neolithic societies of the Central Plains (Xia Shang Zhou 2000; Liu & [...]

Lead is a major component of Chinese ritual bronze vessels. Defining its sources and usage is thus highly significant to understanding the metal industries of the Chinese Bronze Age. A new, simplified method has been developed for examining data, thereby providing insight into diachronic change in the origins of lead sources used in artefacts. Application of this method to the existing corpus of lead isotope data from the Erlitou (c. 1600 BC) to the Western Zhou (c. 1045-771 BC) periods reveals changes in the isotope signal over this time frame. These changes clearly reflect shifts in the sourcing of ores and their use in metropolitan foundries. Further data are required to understand these complex developments. Keywords: China, Bronze Age, lead isotopes, supply network, Introduction There are two characteristics of metal production in Bronze Age China (c. 1700-256 BC) that cannot be ignored. One is the use of lead and tin in the alloy [...]

The development of several key technologies in China--bronze and iron metallurgy and horse-drawn chariots--arose out of the relations of central China, of the Erlitou period (c. 1700-1500 BC), the Shang (c. 1500-1046 BC) and the Zhou (1046-771 BC) dynasties, with their neighbours in the steppe. Intermediaries in these exchanges were disparate groups in a broad border area of relatively high land around the heart of China, the Central Plains. The societies of central China were already so advanced that, when these foreign innovations were adopted, they were transformed within highly organised social and cultural systems. Keywords: China, Eurasian steppe, bronze, gold, iron, chariots, innovation, mass production, Introduction The peoples on Chinas borders and beyond, the mobile pastoralists of the steppe, have traditionally been described in derogatory terms based upon comments in the early histories of the [...]

Early Iron Age pastoralists of the Eurasian steppes relied heavily on copper for weapons and ornaments, and new analysis of metal composition enables long-distance networks to be identified. Primary circulation from source areas where copper was mined can be distinguished alongside the secondary circulation of alloy types with high proportions of tin-bronze or leaded tin-bronze. The relative presence of trace elements, depleted during recycling events, provides a proxy for the flow of metal between regions. The localised seasonal movements characteristic of these mobile steppe societies underlie some of these patterns, but the evidence also indicates more extensive transfers, including the direct movement of finished objects over considerable distances. Keywords: Eastern Eurasian steppe, Early Iron Age, copper, alloys, archaeometallurgy, Introduction The Early Iron Age of the Eurasian steppe zone (c. 1000-300 BC) is characterised, above all, by connectivity. Rapid transmissions of ideas within the pastoral world are marked by [...]