Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2021) 136: 962
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-01952-5

Regular Article

Analyzing the Shang-Western Zhou Dynasty pottery from the Jinsha Site with multi-technique method

¹ Key Laboratory of Radiation Physics and Technology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Sichuan University, 610064, Chengdu, China
² School of History and Culture, Sichuan University, 610064, Chengdu, China

^b anzhu@scu.edu.cn

Received: 13 February 2021
Accepted: 9 September 2021
Published online: 22 September 2021

Abstract

Pottery shards for daily use excavated from the Jinsha Site, a well-known archeological site in China, dated to the period from the late Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty (B.C. 1200–B.C. 771) in ancient China, were analyzed by making use of wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy (RS). The results show that these pottery shards are mainly composed of SiO₂, Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, K₂O, P₂O₅, Na₂O, TiO₂ and CaO, as well as characterized by quartz (α-SiO₂), feldspar (K- and NaAlSi₃O₈), calcite (CaCO₃) and amorphous carbon. These pottery shards from different periods are similar in elemental composition and content, which probably suggests that there is not much difference in the raw materials used to produce these potteries for daily use. The identification of calcite indicates that the firing temperature of these potteries for daily use was probably less than 800 ℃, which implies that this type of pottery was probably fired in an open fire. The use of open firing method shows that the production technology of firing pottery for daily use was not advanced during the Shang and Zhou Dynasty. The complete study of these pottery shards is benefited by the application of multi-technique analytical method, which contributes to better understand the composition, the characteristic of the raw materials and firing method of pottery and provides the preliminary information for studying on the connection and difference of the pottery production technology between the Jinsha and Sanxingdui Site.