Jang-Sik Park

The implication of the metallurgical traditions associated with Chinese style wagons from the royal Xiongnu tomb at Golmod 2 in Mongolia

Lavishly decorated wagons excavated from royal Xiongnu burials are generally regarded as tribute items from China offered to Xiongnu elites, symbolizing important political and economic interactions between the Xiongnu state (209 BC–155 AD) and the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). This theory views such vehicles as having no relation to indigenous Xiongnu craftsmanship. Furthermore, specialized products delivered to the northern nomadic peoples from the Han state are often cited in support of the notion of Xiongnu dependency on foreign states for technological and political development. Expecting to find evidence of China’s traditional iron and bronze technology, we examined a number of key metallic components of these wagons excavated from the royal Xiongnu burial at Golmod 2 in central Mongolia, radiocarbon dated to 109 BC–AD 75. Surprisingly, the iron metallurgy in question was based primarily on the bloomery process while low tin bronze and arsenical copper alloys dominated the pertinent bronze production. These respective technological traditions are typical of Xiongnu manufacture but significantly different from traditional Han metallurgy. We interpret this evidence as suggesting the need for a more balanced evaluation of foreign influence on the rise and development of the Xiongnu state.

Iron technology and medieval nomadic communities of East Mongolia

Numerous iron objects from the medieval sites in Mongolia were metallographically examined for a comparative study intending to probe indigenous and foreign impacts on the establishment of local iron tradition. The artifact assemblage includes iron and cast iron objects recovered during the recent Mongol-American joint expedition to sites in the eastern part of Mongolia. Cast iron objects, dominating the assemblage, were mostly in the form of small fragments or square bars, which would be of little value if they were to be used for casting. However, their greatly varying microstructures reveal evidence of various small-scale steelmaking processes involving cast iron. This observation suggests that most of them were prepared as a practical means to procure steel, a highly valued commodity particularly among nomadic communities. In contrast, other iron objects with microstructures characteristic of inferior bloomery products constituted only a minor part of the assemblage. We discuss the results of our analysis from a comparative perspective and propose that this unique ironworking tradition discovered in eastern Mongolia reflects the distinctive geographical and sociopolitical background of the nomadic groups and periods concerned.

Technical divergence observed in the microstructure of bronze artifacts from the Great Hwangnam Tomb in Kyongju, Korea

Metallurgical examination of bronze artifacts from the Great Hwangnam Tomb in Kyongju, Korea, shows that they were either cast or forged from unleaded alloys containing relatively low or negligible Sn. This clearly deviates from the early Korean bronze tradition based on casting and leaded high Sn alloys, and is also distinguished from the later tradition characterized by the use of high Sn alloys and various thermo-mechanical treatments after casting. This divergence was a transient episode leading to the nucleation of a new bronze tradition in Korea. It is suggested that the spread of iron use and the resulting demand for new bronze items served as major factors driving the search for new metallurgical techniques.