Abstract: In this paper, using SEM-EDS, ICP-MS, XRD, XRF, metallographic microscopy and polarization microscopy and other physical and chemical detection methods, this paper conducts a detailed study on the materials, production process and the composition, process and ore source of the large-scale Fangding bottom fan excavated from the north of Yinxu Nursery in Anyang, Henan, and on this basis, the evolution of the Casting Process of Fangding in the Shang Dynasty is discussed. The results of the study show that the era of this Fang Dingdi Fan may be as late as the fourth phase of Yin Ruins, and its raw materials use selected or treated raw soil, and the attached copper sheet is a relatively rare copper-tin-lead arsenic alloy in the Yin Ruins period, and the mineral material belongs to the category of ordinary lead in the late Yin Ruins.
I. Introduction
Fang Ding is a representative ceremonial vessel of the Shang Dynasty, as far as is known, from the Zhangzhai Dading in the Erligang period to the Simu Pengding, Simu Xinding, Niu Ding, Luding and other Fangding in the YinXu period, the size of the utensils in the same era is the largest, and generally not from small tombs, mostly for the royal family, nobles martyrdom, indicating the important position of Fangding in the Bronze Ceremonial Ware of the Shang Dynasty. Although the Western Zhou Dynasty Chengkang was rarely excavated after Fang Ding, the "Seven Years of zuo chuan Zhao Gong" records that Yun "Zheng Zi was employed by Jin, and the Marquis of Jin gave birth to Ju Zhi's two Fang Ding." "It shows that during the Spring and Autumn Period, Fang Ding was still cherished, and sometimes paired.
As the largest bronze ceremonial vessel, Simu Pengding reflects the production capacity and technical level of the bronze smelting and casting industry in the Yin Ruins period, so it has always received great attention. The excavation and circulation of this dading is found in some surveys and interviews[1], and the relevant research process has been outlined [2]. Guo Moruo[3], Yu Shengwu[4], Chen Mengjia[5], Shi Zhangru[6], Yang Gen and Ding Jiaying[7], Feng Fugen and Hua Jueming[8], Wan Jiabao[9], Yao Qingfang[10], Song Shuti [11], Dong Yawei [12], Ma Yanru[13], etc. have all studied the casting process of Simu Pengding, and their opinions and discussions mainly focus on the number of sub-standards and the casting method of the ears, and the basic view is that the main body of Simu Pengding is cast into shape, and the Ding'er is cast in Shang'an Mou after the Ding body is cast. The modeling and pouring into shape are also used after the mortise and mortise casting method. Each side of the abdomen is formed by a whole set of six patterns embedded in the pattern, extending to the foot. The fan at the bottom of the former may be composed of 4 fans, and 4 gaskets are placed between the fan and the core to maintain the wall thickness.
Compared with the excavated Yuanding Fan, Fang Ding Fan found less, the study found that the use of the Fang Ding sub-casting method is more than the Yuanding, but the sub-fan form of the casting type is less than the Yuanding, and its casting type is generally divided into 4 to 8 pieces vertically along the four corners and the edge, and is divided into 2 to 3 sections horizontally between the abdomen and the feet, between the shoulders to the abdomen, and the larger instrument shape may use the abdominal model inlaid with 4 to 6 pieces of pattern decoration, and the bottom of the instrument is generally molded with a piece of fan. Of course, there are also Simu Pengding who may use 4 fans (this fan is generally called "top fan" because it is positioned at the top, although it is the "bottom fan" that forms the bottom of the instrument). At present, there are about five specific sub-forms of Fang Ding in the Yin Ruins period[14].
In the Yin Ruins period, the utensils were generally poured upside down, the gate and the riser were set on the four legs, and at the bottom of the mold, a bottom fan or "core seat" was often provided to be fastened with the abdominal fan (Figure 1), and the corresponding position of the abdominal fan can be seen in the tenon buckle set for the bottom model (Figure 2). Large artifacts may be built directly on the bottom surface, such as the large circular artifact bottom fan (Fig. 3) found at the Xiaomintun copper casting site in 2000, with a circular face, about 154 cm in diameter, a diagonal fold, and a width of about 7 cm along the edge, which is bluish gray. In the middle, a piece of red-burned earth that had been burned by fire was found, and the hypotenuse of the outer edge of the mouth was traced by the folding edge of the utensils when casting. Outside the platform there is a circle of grass mixed mud to reinforce the van. On the outside, there is a circle of grooves filled with pottery and burnt blocks to strengthen the casting platform. The groove is covered with a layer of fine sand to isolate the heat dissipation. Burned grass mud and charcoal ash were also found on the outermost side, presumably preheated at the time of casting, and the braised earth in the center may have been traced by baking. This archaeological discovery allows us to understand more concretely the composition of large castings during the Yin Ruins period.
For the large Fangding, the more direct evidence of its restoration comes from the large Fangding Fan (Fig. 4) excavated in the north of the nursery in 1963, and the existing part is mainly the part of the bottom fan and the abdominal fan, placed in a north-south direction, and its northern half was destroyed by a Yin Dynasty horse pit, and the southern side is better preserved. The abdominal fan is 97 long in contact with the bottom fan, 114 long on the back, 26 in height, and about 10 cm thick. There is a rectangular dread on each side, which fits exactly with the mortise on the bottom. On the back of the van there is a layer of grass mud, about 12 cm thick at its thickest point. In some places, there is a layer of sand in addition to the grass mixed with mud. The bottom fan is made of loess, the rammed soil is layered, there are rammed nests, containing fine sand, and the outer solid is loose inside. In the lower part of the fan, each has a transverse hole with a diameter of 6 cm. In the middle of Fan's back, there is a vertical hole with a diameter of 9 cm, and there are traces of decaying wood inside the hole. It is speculated that when this set of models was installed, a piece of wood was laid flat in the lower part of the four-sided model, tied to each other, and a piece of wood was erected in the middle of the four-sided model, and each side was bundled up to strengthen the model so that it was firmly placed and not misaligned during casting (Fig. 5) [17].
At the time of the excavation of this set of fans, above the type seat on the south side, between the bottom and the abdominal model, there was a gap of 2 cm, and at the gap on the west side, there was a rectangular irregular bronze fragment, which was 22 cm long, 8 cm wide, and 0.5 cm thick, and the surface was relatively rough, presumably the copper spilled at the time of pouring. As the only large-scale bottom fan relic in the Yin Ruins period that retains the copper liquid at the time of pouring, the analysis of the phenomena and relics displayed in the ruins will deepen our understanding of the production technology of large bronzes in the Yin Ruins period.
Second, the analysis and detection of copper sheets
1. Metallogy detection method
In this paper, the copper sheet is sampled along the cross-section. The sample was ground with coarse metallographic sandpaper to flatten the section to be observed, and then the sample was inlaid with a cold mosaic powder and a 1:1 mixed solution of curing agent, and then the mounted sample was polished by sandpaper sanding, polished by a polishing machine, etched with a concentration of 3% of the ethanol solution of ferric chloride hydrochloride, and its microscopic tissue was observed under a metallographic microscope and a metallographic photo was taken. After the metallographic tissue is observed, the surface of the sample is sprayed with carbon spraying to conduct electricity, placed in a scanning electron microscope to observe its microstructure morphology, and the matrix and inclusions of the sample are analyzed by using an X-ray energy spectrometer configured with scanning electron microscopy. The instrument used for metallographic observation is leica DM4000M metallographic microscope, and the instrument used for elemental composition analysis is carl Zeiss ZEISS EVO18 scanning electron microscope and its configuration X-ray energy spectrometer (SEM-EDS).
2. Analyze the results
The results of metallographic organization identification show that the sample is a typical casting tissue, which can be seen α solid solution branch crystal segregation, a large number of (α + δ) eutecsates are island-like distribution, there are more lead particles, the size varies, there are more small particles, there are individual large spherical lead particles concentrated distribution. In addition, a third phase of gray-black can be seen (see Figures 6 and 7).
The results of the SEM-EDS analysis showed that the sample was a copper-tin-lead arsenic alloy and contained a small amount of iron (Figure 8), and the test results were shown in Table 1. After analysis, the iron content of the gray-black third phase seen in the metallographic observation is as high as 93% (Figure 9).
Table 1 Sample surface scan data (%)
As can be seen from Table 1, this sample is a copper-tin-lead arsenic alloy with a medium tin-lead content and a high arsenic and iron content. Judging from the results of the currently known chemical composition of YinXu bronzes, this type of bronze alloy with tin-lead ratio was not dominant in the Yinxu period, but there was a significant increase in the later period compared with the previous period. And arsenic-containing copperware is even more rare. In view of the maturity of smelting and alloy preparation technology at this time, these arsenic and iron should come from the ore source.
3. Lead isotope ratio analysis
A small part of the copper sheet was taken for lead isotope ratio analysis, and the sample was prepared in the Science and Technology Archaeology Laboratory of the School of Archaeology and Archaeology of Peking University, and the test was completed by the School of Earth and Space Sciences of Peking University.
The lead isotope analysis results of the sample showed that the samples 206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, and 208Pb/204Pb were 17.439, 15.499, and 37.764, respectively, and compared with the lead isotope data of the Yin Xu copper device[19], the results are as shown in Figure 10. Referring to the research system of Jin Zhengyao et al. [20], if the data of 207Pb/206Pb>0.84 is classified as ordinary lead, the lead used in the copper sheet at the Nursery Northland Pottery Fan belongs to ordinary lead and is at the end of the distribution area of yin xu copper, which may mean that the copper sheet is not affected by the mixing phenomenon of ordinary lead and copper containing high discharge lead. The excavated house of the great pottery fan belongs to the late Yin Ruins culture [21], that is, it belongs to the third and fourth phases of the Yin Ruins, and the use of high-lying lead in the third phase of the Yin Ruins has been greatly reduced, and the fourth phase of the Yin Ruins is dominated by ordinary lead, and the high-release lead is almost absent. The source of the copper used in this copper sheet is ordinary lead, and there is no miscible phenomenon, which may mean that it may belong to the fourth phase of Yin Ruins. Although no large artifacts such as Simu Xinding have been found in the fourth phase of Yin Ruins, various discoveries indicate that the scale of the bronze casting industry in Yin Ruins was still expanding during this period[22], and the excavation of large bottom models in the north of the nursery and the circular bottom fan of Xiaomintun show that there was a production activity of casting large utensils at that time.
3. Lithographic observation and composition analysis of Tao Fan
1. Tao Fan's lithofacies observation
From the outside observation, it can be seen that this large bottom fan is similar to the use of loess direct ramming, layered, containing fine sand, external solid inner pine, sampling from the outer side of the bottom model, the sample is earthy yellow, it looks unburned, loose texture, easy to drop powder. Previous studies have shown that Tao Fan of the Yin Dynasty used the elution method to remove clay, and the microstructure showed the characteristics of high silt, low clay, and high porosity.[23] In order to make comparisons, we simultaneously extracted 3 pottery fan samples excavated from the southeast copper casting site of Xiaomintun in Yin Ruins, as well as 1 pottery sample, 1 pottery sample, and 5 continuous soil samples from the Huanbei Shangcheng site (the Huanbei Shangcheng copper casting site is under excavation, and sampling is more convenient), a total of 10 samples, and the sampling situation is detailed in Table 2.
The sample is inlaid with epoxy resin and observed using a ZEISS polarized light microscope, and the results obtained are shown in Table III.
As can be seen from Table 3, the large bottom fan sample YX01 excavated from the north of the nursery has a high silt content, there are sporadic fine sand, and the overall characteristics of the fine material layer of the pottery fan excavated from the copper casting site in the southeast of Xiaomintun are close, the silt content is higher, the particles are small and uniform, but the situation is quite different from the pottery piece, which has a high clay content and a lot of coarse sand. The raw soil of different layers is quite different, the raw soil sample T1 is yellow-red, the clay and silt content are high and high, and the coarse sand is also a lot, if the soil is selected and washed, it is possible to reduce the coarse sand and clay content and increase the silt content. Raw soil sample T2, taken from the ginger layer, less silt, obviously different from the composition of tao fan. T3 is a white fine mud, a large amount of clay around the silt, you can use elution to reduce the clay content, increase the silt content. The morphology of the T4 red glue mud layer was quite different from other samples, and the silt content was very low. Only T5 samples, the clay content is low, the silt content is higher, and the material of the pottery fan is more consistent. In previous studies, it has been generally believed that the materials used in Tao Fan may have been selected and washed to reduce the clay content of raw soil, but few subdivided studies have been conducted on raw soils at different layers. The above analysis shows that there are large differences in the raw soil of different layers, and soils similar to T5 may be directly used as raw materials for making pottery fans.
2. Particle composition statistics
In order to further study the microstructural characteristics of the large pottery fan in the north of the nursery, the particle composition of the sample was quantitatively calculated by using the number point method [24]. The specific method is: use an electron microscope to observe and take pictures of some samples, select backscatter pictures with a magnification of 200 times, use the number point method to perform particle statistics on the samples, set 910 counting points for each picture, count clay (particle size 60 microns), pores of the four types of components (Figure 11), the results obtained are shown in Table 4, of which the double-layer fan YX02 is sampled according to the coarse material layer and the fine material layer, the sample numbers are YX02-1 and YX02-2, respectively.
Using Origin software, the proportions of clay, silt and sand of the above samples are plotted into a ternary diagram (Figure 12).
As can be seen from Table 4 and Figure 12, the silty content of the nursery pottery fan is between the coarse material fan and the fine material fan of the Xiaomintun pottery fan, but the clay content is slightly higher than these fans, on the whole, it is very different from the pottery sheet material, and the difference is also larger than that of the raw soil except T5, so although the nursery pottery fan looks similar to the direct ramming of loess, its raw materials are actually selected or treated.
3． Chemical composition analysis
Some samples were tested for chemical composition by wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF), and the chemical composition data (oxide form) of the samples were normalized and listed in Table 5.
The factor analysis of chemical composition data is performed by SPSS, and the two-dimensional scatterplot plots of factors 1 and 2 are shown in Figure 13.
As can be seen from Table 5, the YX01 large fan has a higher content of aluminum, iron and potassium, and its clay content is higher, so the large fan may deliberately retain more clay components to make the bond between its particles more firm. In contrast, YX03 is a double-layered coarse material layer, its calcium content is significantly higher, it should be artificially added calcium-containing substances, in the lithofacies photos can be found that there are more large yellow particles inside, may be artificially added calcium-containing substances. This phenomenon is also found in the YX02 coarse material layer. YX04 has a very low calcium content, which may be the high rate of calcium removal by the clay removal process.
From Figure 12, in addition to YX04, YX01 large fan and YX02, YX03 composition are relatively close to the composition of T5 raw soil, as mentioned earlier, T5 contains a large amount of silt, clay content is low, very similar to tao fan, and the soil layer is about 0.4 ~ 0.6 meters thick, it may be pottery fan raw material, if the raw soil is used as raw material, it seems that there is no need for clay removal. Although the composition of the YX01 large fan is also relatively close to that of T1 and T2, because the particle size analysis shows that the silty content of T2 is too low and the clay content is too high, and T1 is raw soil with high silty and clay content, it may also be reduced by washing to obtain materials with higher silty content.
4． Mineral composition analysis
The mineral composition of the sample was detected with an X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and the results are shown in Table VI. It can be seen that the main mineral composition of Tao Fan is also common in several soils. Chlorite is less in the pottery sample, but it has been found in several soil samples, chlorite is a typical clay mineral, may be removed from the mold raw materials by the soil washing process, in comparison, the nursery northland large pottery fan removal is not very thorough, it is very close to the mineral composition of T5. YX03 has a high calcite content, and combined with the analysis of chemical composition, it should be added to the coarse sand process.
Discussion
1. Alloy ratio and ore source of copper sheet
As mentioned earlier, the shape of the large pottery fan unearthed in the north of the nursery shows that this may be a base model for casting a large square ding, and the copper sheet attached to the pottery fan has been tested to contain 74.5% copper, 12.1% tin, 9.2% lead, in addition to 2.6% arsenic and 1.4% iron, which shows that this artifact is a copper tin lead arsenic alloy, with a medium tin and lead content, and there is a high arsenic and iron, arsenic and iron may come from the ore source.
Among the Shang Dynasty Fangding that have been excavated, the tested ones are shown in Table VII.
Source:
1 Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, Zhengzhou Museum: "Newly Discovered Shang Dynasty Cellar Bronzes in Zhengzhou", Cultural Relics, No. 3, 1983.
2. Sun Shuyun, "Metallographic Analysis and Composition Analysis Test Report of Shang Dynasty Bronze Ware Cellars in Nanshun Street, Zhengzhou", edited by Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty Bronze Cellars, Science Press, 1999.
3. Fan Xiangxi, Su Honor: "Bronze Alloy Composition of Xingan Shang Dynasty Tombs", Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Jiangxi Provincial Museum, Xingan County Museum, "Xingan Shang Dynasty Tombs", 1997.
4, Yang Gen, Ding Jiaying, "A Preliminary Study on the Alloy Composition and Casting Technology of Simu Peng Dading", Cultural Relics, No. 12, 1959.
5, Hua Jueming, Feng Fugen, Wang Zhenjiang, Bai Rongjin, "Research on the Casting Technology of Bronze Ware Groups in the Tomb of Women's Good", Journal of Archaeology, No. 1, 1981.
From Table 7, it can be seen that in addition to the H1:2 Da Fang Ding excavated from Xiangyang Food Factory, Fang Ding in the early Shang Period generally contained higher lead content and lower tin content. Nanshun Street Cellar South H1:4 Fangding is one of the most original, followed by South H1:3 Fangding, South H1:2 Fangding, Duling No. 2 Fangding, and the H1:2 Fangding unearthed by Xiangyang Food Factory is a relatively technologically advanced one[25], and their alloy composition also basically shows the law of increased tin content and reduced lead content, of course, there are exceptions, such as South H1:3 Fangding.
The table lists two late Shang dynasty fangdings with medium tin content but low lead content. The two Fangding excavated from the Yin Ruins belong to the Second Phase of the Yin Ruins, but the tin content is low compared with most of the bronze containers of the Second Phase of the Yin Ruins. The Casting Age of The Shinkan Fangding XDM:12 may have been slightly earlier than the Yin Xu Phase II,[26] but its alloy ratio also reflects a trend towards a lower lead content. By the third and fourth phases of Yin Hui, although no large square dings were found, the lead content of the containers was generally higher than that of the second phase of Yin Hui. Therefore, the proportion of tin and lead in the bronze artifacts excavated from the northern part of this nursery is still more in line with the characteristics of the era in the late Yin Ruins. In addition, this copper sheet also contains a certain amount of arsenic, but arsenic copper containing utensils was rare in the late Shang dynasty and should be related to the source of the mine.
Copper sheet has a typical casting structure, visible α solid solution branch crystal segregation, a large number of (α + δ) eutecsates are island-like distribution, there are more lead particles, varying in size, to small particles are more, there are individual large spherical lead particles concentrated distribution. In addition, there is a gray-black high-iron phase. The appearance of the metallographic organization is similar to that of the H1:2 Dafangding excavated in Zhengzhou.
According to the results of lead isotope analysis, the lead used in the copper sheet at the Nursery Northland Pottery Fan belongs to ordinary lead and is at the end of the lead isotope ratio distribution area of Yin Xu copper, which may mean that the copper sheet is not affected by the mixing phenomenon of ordinary lead and copper containing high lead, which is also consistent with the ore source of the late Yin Ruins. The excavation of the nursery's Northern Pottery Fan and the Xiaomintun Circular Bottom Fan both show that there was a production activity of casting large utensils at that time, which also proves from one side that the bronze production in the fourth phase of Yin Ruins was still continuing and on a large scale.
2. Raw materials of Tao Fan and their preparation
This suspected base of the nursery Northland Pottery Fan looks different from the common Yin Xu Pottery Fan, its appearance is earthy yellow, and it seems to have not been roasted. A variety of detection methods were used to comprehensively analyze the material, particle size, mineral composition and microstructure of Tao Fan, and the study showed that this piece of Tao Fan had a high content of silt, sporadic fine sand, fine and uniform particles, but it was quite different from the situation of pottery pieces, which had a high clay content and a lot of coarse sand. The silty content of the nursery Northland Pottery Fan is between the coarse and fine material fan of the Xiaomin Tun Pottery Fan, but the clay content is slightly higher than these fans, which may be deliberately retained more clay components to make the bond between its particles more firm.
The results of the analysis of the raw soil of different layers showed that the soil was quite different, compared with the clay content of the T5 sample and the higher content of silt, which was more consistent with the material of the pottery fan. Previous studies have suggested that the materials used in Tao Fan may have been raw soil for selection and washing, especially washing, to reduce clay content, but few studies have been done to subdivide the differences between these raw soil raw materials. Soils like T5 have the potential to be used directly as raw materials for making pottery.
Therefore, although the appearance of the nursery Northland Pottery Fan looks similar to that of direct ramming of loess, its raw materials are actually selected or treated.
3. Technological evolution of Fangding casting process
According to the situation of the excavated objects, the casting process of Fangding has undergone a process from sub-casting to hun casting, and the size of the casting of Fangding is also from small to large, reflecting the progress of the model-making process and the model-making technology.
Zhengzhou cellar south H1:4 square ding, in the casting of the method of casting one by one and then casting. First cast the middle of the four sides of the Ding abdomen, then join the four corners of the Ding abdomen, then cast the bottom of the Ding, and finally cast the Ding foot, and then re-cast the hole formed by the mud core of the four walls. These blocks are made separately according to the sub-mold, and each time the block is cast, the cast front blocks are put together in the model, and after pouring, they become one. The No. 3 Fangding casting process is similar, but there is no trace of recasting on the four walls (Fig. 14). The No. 2 Square Ding casting type is less than the previous block, and the four corners of the Ding belly no longer need to be cast separately in pieces. The No. 1 Fangding reduces the number of castings, that is, each group of patterns is molded according to the unit, and then the patterns are embedded in four models, and the feet cast in advance are placed in the bottom fan, and the five large blocks of the fan and the fan core are cast as a whole [28].
The Fangding process excavated from the Xingan Tomb is similar to the process of the former Sanding of Zhengzhou Cellar South H1, and it is also cast and cast in various parts. For example, the animal face pattern tiger ear copper fangding XDM: 12 (Figure 15), the four walls of the hollow edge is first cast, then cast by the ding abdomen, and then cast four feet, the tiger shape of the ding ear is cast later, and the tiger shape is decorated with a "bundled" structure to connect with the ding ear. The cutouts on all four sides are split and shaped by 2 symmetrical pottery models. The bottom of the ding has a rectangular bottom fan, the abdomen is divided along the four edges, and the casting type is composed of 4 side fans, 1 bottom fan and 1 abdominal core. The tiger ornament consists of a face-to-face 1-fan, a folio-split-shaped 1-1-1-1 on the left and right sides, and a sub-abdominal-ventral-shaped fan with its own mud core. Both the newly dried Da Fang Ding and the Zhengzhou Da Fang Ding have deep grooves in the ears, which is a common practice in the Erligang period, the purpose is to make the thickness of each part uniform, the stiffness is large, and it is not easy to break.
From the perspective of instrument shape, ornamentation, and casting method, the Fangding of Xingan Fangding and Zhengzhou Nanshun Street is more or less the same, and each part is cast and formed one by one. This casting method of forming and joining each part of the device in batches and turning into zero through successive casting and joining reflects the characteristics that the bronze smelting and casting technology is not yet mature at this time, and the molding production and melting facilities are not complete. However, because the shape of these square dings is far larger than other bronze ceremonial vessels of the same period, the difficulties encountered in the production, baking, and moving of these molds, models, the assembly and pouring of the molds are far greater than those encountered. Therefore, although the surface quality of Fangding from Nanshun Street in Zhengzhou is not very good, there are many casting defects and traces of recasting, but the progress of the casting process it shows is beyond doubt. In contrast, the part of the Xingan Fangding that needs to be cast is less than the Fangding stored in Zhengzhou, and the bottom of the instrument is also provided with reinforcement ribs, the casting defects are also less than the latter, the casting age should be later than the latter, Su Honor pointed out that the Xingan Fangding formed a development sequence of full-division casting - half-casting - hun casting, the former is close to the practice of Zhengzhou Fangding, and the latter is the forming method of Yin Xu Fangding.
During the Yin Dynasty, Fang Ding was mostly cast, and only accessories such as ears could be cast by sub-casting. The Simu Xinding excavated from the Tomb of Lady Hao was cast and formed, weighing 117.5 kilograms, with a height of 80.5 centimeters, a regular shape, and few casting defects on the surface. The main body of Simu Pengding is cast and formed, and the ear is cast on the body and then formed in the upper anem, turned over, and poured (Fig. 16), and three square clay core braces can be seen on the X-ray of the right ear (Fig. 17) [30]. Each side of the abdomen is formed by a whole set of six patterns embedded in the pattern, extending to the foot. The fan at the bottom of the former may be composed of 4 fans, and 4 gaskets are placed between the fan and the core to maintain the wall thickness. Due to the deformation of the casting model, the outer drum of the long-sided part of the two abdomen of the ding is more than 1 cm, and the whole artifact has more casting defects, and the abdomen and three feet have been recast. This may be due to the fact that the entire vessel is too large, and the mold is difficult to control when it is turned, baked, and dried.
The Niu Fangding (Fig. 18) and Lu Fangding (Fig. 19) excavated from HPKM1004 were also formed, and the four walls of the Fangding used two pottery fans on each side, and the entire Fangding consisted of 8 side fans, 1 bottom fan, and 1 Ding belly mud core. It is just that the dingkou animal face is raised, and the inner wall is correspondingly concave, which Mr. Guo Baojun calls the "convex and concave fan" casting method[32], which is the same as the practice of the Dragon and Tiger Zun in Funan, Anhui. This practice is a typical example of the use of scraped cores, mainly to keep the same wall thickness of the utensils in case of cracks and other casting defects, so that semi-embossed ornaments can be made under the technical conditions at that time. This practice, in addition to being found in the Dragon and Tiger Zun of Funan, is also found in artifacts such as the M333 M33 and M238 Fang Yi in Anyang, and appeared more widely in the southern region of the Yin Ruins period, but rarely appeared in Anyang after the first phase of the Yin Ruins [33], so this practice may also have certain characteristics of the times, and later manifested as a regional feature. In the artifacts of the second phase of Yin Ruins, only Niu Fangding and Lu Fangding have adopted this practice.
In addition, the special feature of these two pieces is that the pattern of the foot, the style and practice of the pattern on the inside and outside are different. The pattern on the outside of the foot should be copied from the mold to the model, while the yang line pattern on the inside of the foot is directly delineated on the bottom model.
The two pieces of the smaller Tomb No. 54 were not formed using a composite model with inlaid patterns, but a horizontal and sub-fan casting process was used, showing the richness of the casting process in the Yin Ruins period.
Fangding's casting process progressed from piece by block casting to one forming of the main part, which is a huge progress. It is speculated that the Simu Pentading Fan may reach the dimensions of 94×84× 12 cubic centimeters, and weigh up to 150 kilograms. The reproduction, removal, baking, trimming and installation of this kind of fan is very difficult, which shows that in the second phase of Yin Ruins, the production process of the casting fan has reached a very high level.
In addition, in the production of the pattern, the Fangding produced by M54, like the Simu Xinding and the Simu Pengding, is a combination of the pattern of the mold and the engraving on the fan, which is different from the practice of processing the Yang line ornament and the milk ding pattern on the fan surface of the Erligang period. Large square dings, such as Simu Pengding and Simu Xinding, also adopt the practice of inlay patterning in the whole fan.
P.S. This paper was funded by the National Key Research Program "Research on the Technological Development of Inorganic Cultural Relics and Its Relationship with Civilization" (No. 2019YFC1520205).
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(Author: Liu Yu Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Liu Jianyu, Palace Museum, Zhong Zhengquan Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Yue Zhanwei Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; originally published in Southern Cultural Relics, No. 5, 2021)