Yuhuangmiao: the socio-cultural dynamics of a community between the steppes and the Chinese plains.

Unlabelled: The Yuhuangmiao culture emerged around the 7th to the 4th centuries BCE in northeastern China near Beijing. The burial ritual with stone layers, numerous animal deposits, and the material culture indicate a strong steppe connection. It is often used to support the narratives in the Chinese historical texts that people living in the area had a distinctive lifestyle from those in the southern, agricultural-based communities and that the two groups often had a hostile relationship.

New scientific analyses reveal mixing of copper sources in the early Iron Age metal production at Ili, western China.

The crucial role that Xinjiang played in cultural communication across the Eurasian steppe in prehistory is evidenced by the large number of copper-based objects that represent the early metallurgical technologies found across this region. Our research adds new chemical and isotopic analyses of 44 copper-based objects dated to the early Iron Age of Ili in Xinjiang, western China. As noted in a number of publications, tin bronze and arsenic copper/bronze were the dominant alloying types across Xinjiang during the second and first millennium BC, whereas some specific types of objects such as cauldrons are often made from pure copper.

Social hierarchy and the choice of metal recycling at Anyang, the last capital of Bronze Age Shang China.

Anyang, the last capital of the Chinese Shang dynasty, became one of the largest metal consumers in Eurasia during the second millennium BCE. However, it remains unclear how Anyang people managed to sustain such a large supply of metal. By considering the chemical analysis of bronze objects within archaeological contexts, this paper shows that the casting and circulation of metal at Anyang was effectively governed by social hierarchy.