摘要
铜岭铜矿遗址位于江西北缘的瑞昌市境内的幕阜山东北角,居长江中游南岸,距城关24公里,地理座标为北纬29°45′,东经115°35′。地势属低山丘陵地带,地形受侵蚀较剧烈。山脉走向呈北东东向排列,一般高程在100—200米。现代矿山为九江市属的铜铁矿山,而地域则为瑞昌市夏坂乡管辖。
The Tongling copper mine site is located in the territory of Ruichang City, Jiangxi Province, on the southern bank of the middle Yangtze River. It is the earliest mine site known so far in China. From 1988 to 1991, archaeologists from the Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology carried out a successive excavation in its mining area for your years, which covered an area of 1, 800 sq m and brought to light nearly 500 objects, 103 shafts, 19 galleries and several opencut mining pits and ore-dressing plots. The present paper makes a study on the date, mining and ore-dressing techniques and cultural affiliation of this site on the basis of its plentiful archaeological data. According to stratigraphical evidence, the typical pottery vessels, bronze tools and timber supports unearthed from units under different strata, and the radiocarbon dates of wood specimens, this mine began to be excavated in the mid Shang and was abandoned in the early Warring States period. The study of mining techniques includes inquiries into the seeking, exploring and excavating methods, especially the undergroud mining techniques such as the shaft-and gallery-supporting, tunnelling, elevating, water-draining and lighting means. The investigation of ore-dressing techniques is made in the light of small-sized sand- washing trays and large-sized sloping wooden troughs. The latter is learnt from a simulated test. The ore-dressing technology of that time already reached a high level. The main device was the appication of the action of sand grains in slantingly-running water to carry out material division and selection, which was a discovery of great importance in the history of Chinese beneficiation. Based on textual records and the pre-Qin mines discovered in the middle and lower Yangtze valley, the authors come to the conclusion that this area constiuted one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. Not only does it come first in China for its abundant reserves of copper ore, but in remote antiquity it was an important resource supplying copper material to bronze foundries in the Central Plains. This further proves that the Chinese bronze culture was indigenous with its mining, smelting and casting technology forming a unique system and occupying a significant position among the world bronze civilizations.
出处
《考古学报》
CSSCI
北大核心
1998年第4期465-496,529-536,共40页
Acta Archaeologica Sinica
