Background:
Bronze spears are weapons with unique regional characteristics of the Shu culture, Southwest
China in the Bronze Age, which reflect the bronze manufacturing tradition and the utilization of mineral resources of
ancestors. Previous studies mainly focused on the classification, the alloy composition or the production of bronze
spearheads of the Shu culture. The purpose of this paper was to make a comprehensive discussion on the Shu culture from
the aspects of the relationship between typology and scientific characteristics, the differences in metal raw material
selection with the Ba culture, and the contact with the culture in the Central Plains.
Results :
Methods: In this study, typology, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) and multi collector inductively
coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) were used to analyze thirteen bronze spearheads unearthed from
Shuangyuan site, an Eastern Zhou cemetery in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Southwest China.
Methods:
The results show that the spearheads can be classified into three types in typology. All samples are tin-lead
ternary bronzes, and the lead isotope data indicate the lead ore. Most spearheads show ordinary lead and only one
spearhead has highly radiogenic lead.
Conclusion:
The typical Shu-style bronze spearheads have distinct shapes but similar ore materials. Meanwhile, people of
the Ba culture and the Shu culture used different metal sources to make bronze spearheads. In addition, a very special
bronze spearhead suggests that ancestors of the Shu culture in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty imitated the late Shang culture in
the Central Plains.
Preliminary Discussion on the Highly Radiogenic Lead in Unalloyed Copper Artifacts of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty: Starting from the Huili Copper Spearheads
