Metallurgy in ancient Eastern Asia: Retrospect and prospects

Abstract

Metallurgy has been taken as essential to the development of Chinese civilization. Archaeological study has been particularistic and evolutionary, tied to traditional Chinese historiography and modern Marxist model of social development. Modern studies suggest that it emerged independently in a core area and then spread to peripheral areas by way of political expansion and cultural diffusion over many millennia, and that metallurgy was also homegrown. New excavations suggest: multiple early centers of production; that the Chinese case belongs to a regional context; that native sources of ores were significant; and that metals were used in several prestate-level societies.