"This is the first study that adopts a comprehensive, thorough, and interdisciplinary approach toward early Chinese lost-wax castings. With more than 80 images, this book provides a study on the "norms," which are seldom questioned. By examining the reasons why Chinese founders often chose not to use the lost-wax process they had clearly mastered, the book refutes the idea that lost-wax technology is the only "right way" to cast bronzes. This study demonstrates that a "norm" is in many ways an illusion that twists our comprehension of art, technology, civilization, and history"--

This text covers the early experimentation with metals and alloys and on production of metal artifacts which helps to understand the emergence of early Chinese civilization. The materials presented here should alter the view that Chinese society developed in a vacuum and that dynastic China was the exclusive making of local cultures in the Yellow River Valley.

"This is the first study that adopts a comprehensive, thorough, and interdisciplinary approach toward early Chinese lost-wax castings. With more than 80 images, this book provides a study on the "norms," which are seldom questioned. By examining the reasons why Chinese founders often chose not to use the lost-wax process they had clearly mastered, the book refutes the idea that lost-wax technology is the only "right way" to cast bronzes. This study demonstrates that a "norm" is in many ways an illusion that twists our comprehension of art, technology, civilization, and history"--

A study of the production and use of iron and steel in early China, and simultaneously a methodological study of the reconciliation of archaeological and written sources in Chinese cultural history. Includes chapters on the technology of iron production based on studies of artifact microstructures.

Xinjiang was an important area for connections between the east and west of Central Asia, most notably in terms of metallurgical innovations and metal objects. This study of the later prehistory of the region, and of the Andronovo Culture of the second millennium BC, focuses on typological studies and analyses of early metal artefacts and of metallurgical processes, especially mining and smelting. The question of the diffusion and influence of innovations and styles of objects are considered in terms of the relationships between Xinjiang and its neighbours.

Describes the Chinese Bronze Age, including the development of the Chinese state, writing, religion and architecture.

A detailed technical study of 47 bronze fragments excavated from the site of Tianma-Qucun in the south-west Shanxi province of China, an early capital of the Jin state from 1027 to 650BC.