Abstract

While much has been written about the technological complexity and long-distance trade of ritual bronzes and jade in early China, comparatively little research as been deployed to the early history of a material that would become iconic of China: porcelain. High-fired pottery began to appear in China around 5,000 years ago, and porcelain emerged approximately 3,800 years ago. Interestingly, all the early high-temperature ceramic kiln sites were concentrated in southern China, while the capital sites of the Xia and Shang Dynasties (2070 BC–1046 BC) were concentrated in northern China. In this region, there is no archaeological evidence for porcelain production, but hard pottery and proto-porcelain have been found abundantly. In an unprecedented collaborative effort, we collected samples of hard pottery and porcelain from nearly all the capital and kiln sites dating back to the Xia and Shang periods, and conducted PIXE and XRF tests and data analysis. The results show that the high-temperature ceramics in the northern capital sites originated from southern kilns, revealing large-scale production and trade of porcelain already in the Xia and Shang periods. This trade was not interrupted by warfare or dynastic changes, and provides an interesting point of comparison for the circulation of other luxury materials such as bronze and jade.

In person and online.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZDc2MDk1ZGQtNmNkZC00M2U2LTliYjMtN2EyZWE0MDI5ZTAz%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2249a50445-bdfa-4b79-ade3-547b4f3986e9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%227c42dde3-f200-49ed-9a81-5aa7e67f945e%22%7d

—

Yi Bao is a postdoc in the department of cultural heritage and museology, Institute of Archaeological Science, Fudan University. She is the is the principal head of the ancient ceramics laboratory. She has a multidisciplinary background in geology, materials science, and archaeology. In 2012, she obtained the FGA certification of Gemmological Association of Great Britain, and in 2019, she earned her PhD in Materials Science from Fudan University. Her primary research focuses on the scientific archaeology of ancient Chinese ceramics and jade, with a particular emphasis on the origins of porcelain.