中国古代蹄铁的分布与技术传播

The Distribution and Technical Transmission of Farriery in Ancient China

在对前人解读文献进行辨析的基础上,结合近年来考古资料,研究古代中国蹄铁的出现和传播问题。中原地区在唐代以前缺乏使用蹄铁的确切证据,根据文献史料蹄铁应是在元代之后才开始在中原文化区逐渐普及。从考古资料来看,中国东北地区在高句丽王朝时期就已广泛使用蹄铁,6～13世纪蹄铁已在中原地区周边的山地、戈壁、高原等区域广泛使用。东西方早期蹄铁在形态、工艺和使用方法等方面存在相似性,这可能是蹄铁技术通过内亚草原自西向东传播所导致的。

Farriery, or the art of shoeing horses, was an invention which played an important role in the use of animal power. According to documents and archaeological materials, this paper points out that there was no definite evidence for the use of horseshoe in the Central Plains of China until the Yuan Dynasty. On the other hand, the Koguryo people who lived in modem northeast China already mastered the farriery no later than the 2nd century A. D. And this technique had been widely used in the area of mountains, plateau and gravel desert around the Central Plains between the 6th and 13th century. The author finds that there are similarities in the typology, usage and manufacturing method between the farriery of Koguryo and Romano-Britannia, which probably resulted from the technological transmission from west to east through the Eurasia steppes.