https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00355-2
Regular Article
Archaeometallurgical perspectives on breaking mirror burial of Xiongnu culture in Xinjiang during the Western Han Dynasty
1
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
2
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, 100049, China
3
Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, Ürümqi, 830011, China
* e-mail: xiahua@ucas.ac.cn
Received:
8
October
2019
Accepted:
20
March
2020
Published online:
20
April
2020
The burial custom of breaking mirrors was prevalent in the Xiongnu culture. But the practical ritual processes, such as whether specific bronze mirrors were deliberately selected and whether they have been heated or burnt, have not been discussed. In this paper, we provide a case study of the Hongshangou tombs in ancient’s Weixu State along the Silk Road, which may shed light on this issue. All five bronze mirrors were analyzed by OM, SEM-EDS, and MC-ICP-MS methods. The results reveal that these mirrors are the common Western Han mirrors from the Central Plains. The metallography shows that there is no sign of heating and the component analysis illustrates that the lead content is comparatively low. This situation is different from the broken mirrors buried in some noble tombs of the Xiongnu tribe.
© Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, 2020
