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Central production and local casting: some new perspectives on the mirror industry of the Tang Dynasty from the bronze mirrors excavated in Xi’an city, Shaanxi province, central China

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Abstract

The Tang Dynasty was the final high point in the history of Chinese bronze mirrors, but little is known about the face of the mirror industry. The existence of private workshops as opposed to official institutions was a matter of uncertainty. In this paper, five bronze mirrors excavated in Xi’an city (the capital of Tang Dynasty) were analyzed using the methods OM, SEM–EDS, and MC-ICP-MS, and offer some new perspectives on the subject. The results show that the alloy ratios and process characteristics of these bronze mirrors are very similar to those of the Han mirrors. In addition, highly radiogenic lead has been detected for the first time in excavated Tang Dynasty artifacts belongs to an imitated Han mirror. It may have been a private adaptation at that time, and the social background and motivation for imitating the Han mirror are also discussed. This is, of course, the first confirmation of the Tang Dynasty imitation mirror in terms of scientific data beyond visual inspection.

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Acknowledgements

Professor Mu Wang from Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relic Identification Center, Dr. & Professor Jun Yang from China Numismatic Museum, Senior collectors and antiquarians Mr. Chunan Zhao and Mr. Zhong Zhang helped a lot for the typological discussion of the imitative Western Han mirror sample TM5, and we appreciated it very much. We are also grateful to anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the quality of the manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 20VJXG018), the Beijing Social Science Fund Project (No. 21DTR046), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Dian Chen & Wugan Luo

  2. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, 100049, China

    Dian Chen & Wugan Luo

  3. Xi’an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Yanpeng Wang

  4. The Institute of Archaeology, Beijing Union University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Kejia Huang

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  1. Dian Chen
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  2. Yanpeng Wang
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  3. Kejia Huang
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  4. Wugan Luo
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Contributions

D. C. and W. L. performed the data analysis and were major contributors in writing the manuscript. Y. W. and K. H. provided the archeological context. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kejia Huang or Wugan Luo.

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Chen, D., Wang, Y., Huang, K. et al. Central production and local casting: some new perspectives on the mirror industry of the Tang Dynasty from the bronze mirrors excavated in Xi’an city, Shaanxi province, central China. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 15, 97 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01803-7

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