"… and whoever wandered, he increased knowledge …"
(Sirach 34:10)
"… gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and lead, …"
(Numbers 31:22)
More than once or twice in a series of articles on metals of the Bronze Age, we have met with scientists' statements that the technology of metal processing was brought to this or that region by settlers from other lands, that is, the problem of ancient migrants is also a problem of ancient metallurgy. … And in general, no one argues with this. However, when it comes to specific regions, there is a lot of yes and no in support of this point of view.
Bronze ritual weapon (Yayoi period). Tokyo National Museum.
And this is where spectral analysis comes to our aid, which allows us to answer with impeccable accuracy the question of what metal and with what impurities this object was made. Moreover, just by adding various kinds of additives to more or less pure copper, our ancestors obtained the world's first artificial alloy - bronze, from the name of which the very term "Bronze Age" originated.
Well, the properties of the same tin and lead are such that they lower the melting point of copper, increase its fluidity, greatly facilitate the process of casting and final processing of objects, and also change the color of the product. If the content of tin in the bronze alloy is higher than 10%, then the characteristic reddish-copper color of the metal turns into brass-yellow, and when the content of tin in it is 30% or more, it becomes silvery-white. If the lead in the melt is less than 9%, then it is melted in it into a homogeneous mass, but with its high content, lead is released from it during cooling and settles on the walls of the melting crucible or mold.
"Vessel with a crown" (3000 - 2000 BC). The Jomon period. Tokyo National Museum.
The dominance of casting also determined the composition of the alloy, in which the ancient Chinese consisted of three main components - copper (tong), tin (si) and lead (qian), the ratio of which could vary depending on both the time and the place of production of the product. So, copper in ancient Chinese bronzes could be from 63, 3 to 93, 3%, tin - from 1, 7 to 21, 5% and lead - from 0, 007 to 26%. In addition to these metals, an impressive set of various components was found in Yin bronze alloys, including zinc (blue, 0, 1-3, 7%), iron (those less than 1%), which even in small doses affects the color of the product and gives it a yellowish tint, nickel (not, approx. 0.04%), cobalt (gu, 0.013%), bismuth (bi, 0.04%), as well as antimony (ti), arsenic (shen), gold (jin) and silver (yin), however, in microscopic doses. As organic additives, phosphorus-containing bone ash was used, which served as a deoxidizer (i.e., neutralized the oxidation process) and improved the ductility of the alloy. The bronze casting process consisted of three sequential technological operations: making a model together with a mold, melting and casting. The fuel used was charcoal capable of providing a melting temperature of 1000º. The technology mastered in the second half of the Shang-Yin epoch made it possible to cast bronze items, very intricate in configuration and weighing almost a ton, and to perform the most complex ornamental compositions on them.
Yodohara Village in Kagoshima, reconstruction of a village from the Jomon period.
That is, the composition of the metal found in different places is his kind of passport. It is enough to compare the spectral analysis data of two seemingly completely different products, but made of the same metal in the same workshop, to say that they are relatives!
The entire territory of Japan is covered with large or small "keyholes" (there are more than 161560 of them!) - Kofun burial mounds of the Kofun era, the first sub-period of the Yamato era. Digging them up is prohibited by law. And this is the largest kofun - daisen-kofun, the tomb of Emperor Nintoku in Osaka, view from the plane.
That is, the composition of the metal found in different places is his kind of passport. It is enough to compare the spectral analysis data of two seemingly completely different products, but made of the same metal in the same workshop, to say that they are relatives! Moreover, in the past it often happened that metal, and in particular the same bronze items, turned out to be many hundreds, or even thousands of kilometers from the places of their manufacture and not only found themselves, but also created new civilizations, as happened, for example, in Japan.
The dotaku bronze bell is one of the most popular types of casting in Japan at the end of the Yayoi era, III century. AD Tokyo National Museum.
It must be said here that the history of Japan contains many secrets. Moreover, at least one of them is associated with the history of all mankind and, in addition, again with the history of the most ancient metal.
Let's start with the fact that modern archeology has reliable data that people lived there already 40 thousand years ago, that is, in the Upper Paleolithic era. At that time, the level of the World Ocean was 100-150 meters lower than the modern one and the Japanese Islands were part of the Asian continent. 12 thousand years ago, the ice age ended and it reached its present level. The climate has become warmer and the Japanese flora and fauna have changed dramatically. In the northeastern part of the archipelago, oak and coniferous forests have grown, and in the southwestern part, beech and subtropical ones. They were home to large wild boars, deer, wild ducks, and pheasants, and the coastal areas were rich in shellfish, salmon and trout. Thanks to this natural wealth, the inhabitants of the Japanese Isles did not require large-scale agriculture, and they continued to engage in hunting and gathering.
Stone polished axes of the aborigines of the Japanese islands. Tokyo National Museum.
Around the same time, historians believe, the first migration of migrants from Southeast Asia to the Japanese islands took place. And already about 10 thousand years ago, the ancient inhabitants of the Japanese islands mastered the secrets of ceramic production, and began to make ceramic products, which are considered one of the oldest in the world. Among them predominated were kitchen utensils in the form of jugs for storing food and cooking, as well as ritual humanoid figures called "dogu". Since the main feature of these ceramics was the so-called "cord ornament" (in Japanese jomon), archaeologists called this culture "the Jomon culture", and the era when it dominated the Japanese islands - the Jomon period.
Dogu statuette. Jomon culture. Guimet Museum, Paris.
Then, in 1884, a new style of ceramics was found in Japan, and in honor of the first site where artifacts of the new style were discovered, this new archaeological culture was given the name "Yayoi culture." Modern historiography believes that the Yayoi era began in the 3rd century BC and ended only in the 3rd century AD, although a number of modern Japanese researchers attribute its beginning five hundred years earlier - in the 9th century BC, based on radiocarbon analysis data and the results of spectrometry.
A vessel from the Yayoi era.
Well, the reason was still the same - migrants from China: a massive flow of immigrants who did not want to recognize the power of the Han dynasty. At the same time, these immigrants from China and Korea brought to the Japanese islands not only rice-growing techniques, and more advanced agricultural tools, but also bronze and even iron products, which were absent here until that time, as well as technologies for processing these metals. At the same time, life on the islands changed radically, craft, agriculture began to develop, and the general level of culture increased significantly.
Ancient stone mold for bronze castings.
Of course, first of all, it was a weapon, which in the era of the Yin dynasty was represented by bronze Yue axes, which had the shape of a trapezoid with a moon-shaped blade. With a blow of such an ax, one could easily chop off a person's head or cut him in half. Therefore, they were used as a military weapon, and as a weapon of execution, and even … as a musical percussion instrument. Among the royal regalia of the Yin era, there was also such an ax, and there is even a version that the hieroglyph "king" (wang) just comes from the image of the yue poleax. It is significant that axes are often found in the burials of the Yin nobility, and therefore they had a rich decoration, relief and cut-through decor, which also included images of people and animals.
Chinese swords: an iron one on the left and two bronze ones on the right.
But in the XI-VIII century. BC. the poleaxe is completely out of fashion. And it was replaced mainly by the halberd-chi with a pointed beak-shaped tip on a long wooden shaft.
Bronze bits of the Kofun era, V - VI centuries. AD
In the VIII-VII centuries. BC. in China, the jian sword appeared, and at once in two constructive versions: a "short" blade with a length of 43 to 60 cm, and a "long" one up to one meter. "Short swords" were the most popular type of both combat and ceremonial weapons. In burials of the 5th-3rd centuries. BC. there are whole arsenals in which up to 30 such swords are found. Most of the known finds have cast handles with decorative inserts of mother-of-pearl and jade, and their blades are often decorated with gold inlay. And it was then that the inhabitants of the Japanese culture Yayoi got acquainted with all this and quickly adopted it all.
Chinese sword jian.
Well, the Japanese themselves very soon began not only to mine copper and obtain alloys close to bronze, but also more often … simply to remelt old Chinese bronze items, which is confirmed by their comparative chemical analysis. Moreover, in Japan of the Yayoi period, as well as in China, weapons, objects of worship and jewelry were made of bronze. The population began to increase, land for fields was no longer enough, as a result of which long and bloody wars began with the aboriginal population of the Japanese islands - the Ainu, which, in fact, became the basis for the formation of Japanese statehood and all subsequent Japanese culture. That is, there was no copper-stone age in Japan, and they began to process bronze and iron almost simultaneously.
Yonaguni Monument.
And now how the history of ancient Japanese metal is connected with the history of all mankind. It turns out to be the most direct, although there is almost no talk about the metal itself. The fact is that in 1985 an underwater artifact of clearly man-made origin was discovered in the waters of the Japanese island of Yonaguni, called the Yonaguni Monument. The dimensions of the artifact are 50 meters long, 20 meters wide, and 27 meters high from the base. Fans of high-profile sensations immediately dubbed it a "pyramid", determined that it was a cosmodrome of aliens from space, a "temple of the Atlanteans", but the point is that this is not a pyramid, and, most likely, not a temple, since the surface " monument "is such that most of all resembles … a modern mine for the extraction of stone! There are wide flat platforms, decorated with huge rectangles and rhombuses hewn by hand, and intricate terraces that run down in great steps and many unnaturally straight edges. It seemed that the structural elements have a clear architectural composition, but this is meaningless from all points of view, except for one - once upon a time a stone was taken here and all these "steps" and "corners" are the consequences of the work on its extraction. That is, it is nothing more than an ancient stone quarry. Hence all the intricacy of its architecture.
How much this statement corresponds to the truth is difficult to say, but the conclusion that the Yonaguni megalith is a trace of an ancient civilization, in 2001 was supported by the majority of Japanese scientists. Moreover, somewhat similar to the Yonaguni Monument, a giant stepped structure was also found near Chatan Island in Okinawa; an unusual underwater labyrinth was discovered near Kerama Island, and near Aguni Island, apparently human-made cylindrical depressions were found. On the other side of Yonaguni Island, in the strait between Taiwan and China, they found underwater structures similar to walls and roads … Moreover, although all this has already been found quite a long time ago, the research of all these underwater objects is in fact only just beginning. Although, despite the obvious lack of information, we can already talk about the existence in the area of the Japanese Islands of an ancient and developed megalithic civilization, about which historians previously did not know anything, and which existed even before all these structures were flooded by sea waves, that is more than 12 thousand years ago. And here's another interesting thing: if we assume that this is an ancient stone quarry, then with what tools did they work on it? Stone, such as those used by the natives of Easter Island to make their moai stone idols, or metal, copper and bronze, similar to the tools of the ancient Egyptians? In the first case, we get an impressive example of antediluvian Stone Age culture. But in the second - if only copper or bronze artifacts of the corresponding time are found there, it will immediately become obvious that the very first metal appeared not at all in Chatal Huyuk, but somewhere here, and even before all these ancient structures flooded the oceans! And then the whole world history will have to be rewritten! It is unclear, however, so far one circumstance: for the construction of which "objects" the building material was used, mined here in such a huge amount …
