Bronze Wine Vessel Gong with Snake Shaped Buttons Circling around from Fu Hao's Tomb in Henan China
The development of metal-working technology represents a significant transition in Chinese history. The first known bronze vessels were found at Erlitou near the middle reaches of the Yellow River in northern central China. Most archaeologists now identify this site with the Xia dynasty (c. 2100-1600 BC) mentioned in ancient texts as the first of the three ancient dynasties (Xia, Shang, and Zhou). It was during the Shang (1600-1050 BC), however, that bronze-casting was perfected. Bronze was used for weapons, chariots, horse trappings, and above all for the ritual vessels with which the ruler would perform sacrifices to the ancestors. The high level of workmanship seen in the bronzes in Shang tombs suggests a stratified and highly organized society, with powerful rulers who were able to mobilize the human and material resources to mine, transport, and refine the ores, to manufacture and tool the clay models, cores, and molds used in the casting process, and to run the foundries. Altogether the bronzes found in Fu Hao's tomb weighed metric tons, a sign of the enormous wealth of the royal family. These vessels were not only valuable by virtue of their material, a strong alloy of copper, tin, and lead, but also because of the difficult process of creating them. The piece-mold technique, used exclusively in China, required a great deal of time and skill.
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Photo credit: © Liu Xiaoyang / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: anyang, bronze, china, dynasty, fuhao, henan, heritage, hiistoric, historical, history, images, shang, tomb, tour, unesco, world, xia, yinxu, zhou
