湖南桑植官田冶炼遗址发掘简报及冶金分析研究

Brief Report and Metallurgical Analysis on the Excavation of Sangzhi Guantian Smelting Site in Hunan Province

2015年,湖南省文物考古研究所等单位为配合基础建设工程发掘了张家界市桑植县官田遗址,发现房屋、灰沟、灰坑等遗迹,出土了陶器、铁器、铜器等遗物,其中发现的某些遗迹和出土的泥芯、炉渣等遗物,证明这是一处东汉到三国时期与冶炼有关的遗址。冶金分析表明,出土的铁器大部分为铸铁脱碳钢,并有少量生铁及炒钢制品。同时,出土的积铁块当与精炼、炒钢的过程相关。因此,遗址出土的遗物反映了此处可能具备了生铁制铁作坊基本的生产环节。官田遗址的发掘,对于研究中国南方地区的生铁冶炼技术和相关的生产体系提供了一批新的研究资料。

The Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted a joint salvage excavation with several other institutes at the Guantian site in Sangzhi county, Zhangjiajie city in 2015. The excavation discov-ered houses, ditches, ash pits, and a wide range of artifacts including ceramics, iron objects, bronze objects, etc.Most importantly, certain identified features and unearthed artifacts such as a piece of core in the set of ceramic cast-ing molds and slag indicated that the site, which dates to the Eastern Han and the Three-Kingdom periods, was as-sociated with iron manufacturing activities. The scientific analysis suggests that the majority of iron objects from the site was made of steel decarburized from the solid stage of cast iron. Meanwhile, small amount of cast iron and fined iron objects were identified. The archaeometallurgical analysis also shows that several pieces of manufacturing waste were related to either refining or fined-iron manufacturing process. In other words, all these remains indicate that the ironworks at the Guantian site should include all basic manufacturing procedures of a cast iron foundry dur-ing the Han period. The excavation of the Guantian site provides an important piece of new information for explor-ing the cast iron manufacturing techniques and production system in Southern China during the Han period.