咸阳龚西战国秦墓出土铜壶制作工艺研究

Casting Technology of the Bronze hu Kettles Discovered from Warring States Qin Tombs at the Gongxi Cemetery,Xianyang City

咸阳龚西战国秦墓出土的青铜器为研究战国时期秦青铜容器的铸造技术提供了重要实物资料。本文对龚西战国晚期秦墓M8出土的两件铜壶,通过表面观察结合X光摄像考察其制作工艺痕迹,利用金相显微镜、扫描电镜能谱分析等手段开展成分及显微结构分析,揭示两件铜壶壶身及表面装饰的制作工艺、材质特征。结果显示,两件铜壶均为铸造,器底和铜环预先铸好后置于范中,与器身铸为一体。器身和器底均为铅锡青铜(铜锡铅三元合金),但成分有一定差异,镶嵌的装饰金属片为高铅青铜。铜壶的器底分铸工艺和高铅青铜镶嵌工艺为古代青铜器制作工艺研究提供了重要的新材料。

The bronze vessels discovered in Qin-State tombs at the Gongxi cemetery,Xianyang City provide important material evidence to understand Qin-State bronze casting technologies during the Warring States period.This research studied two bronze hu kettles discovered in a late Warring States tomb no.M8.We applied X-ray photographing and microscopic examination under petrological microscope and SEM to examine chemical composition,microscopic structure,casting technology and material characteristics on the bodies and surface decorations of these two bronze vessels.Our results reveal that the bottoms and rings of the two bronze vessels were cast separately and placed into the clay casting molds before the entire vessels were cast.The alloys of both the bodies and bottoms were lead-and-tin bronze(forming the so-called ternary alloys of copper,tin and lead),although their exact chemical compositions vary to a certain degree.In contrast,the inlay decorative parts contain high lead contents.The scientific evidence for the separate casting procedures of the bottoms and bodies and the high-lead bronze alloy of the decorative parts provides important new information to the study of metallurgical history of ancient China.