Investigation Of Two Zinc Smelting Sites In Guangxi Province During 18^th Century

Zinc as a volatile metal was known until Ming and Qing dynasties in China. But as an important component of brass, zinc has long and profound impact on China's history.Brass, a kind of zinc-copper alloy,was a famous coin material in Ming and Qing Dynasties.The huge needs of brassdirectly influenced the development of zinc smelting technology.In 17 th and 18 th century, Chinese zinc was exported all over the world. Then in 20 th century, some traditional zinc smelting factories were still existed in southwest of China.But no traditional zinc smelting factories have been found in Guangxi, which is within the Southwest region. According to references and fieldwork,zinc smelting sites in Hechi district,Guangxi have been found.This thesis is focus on Didong site in Luocheng County and Hongshan site in Huanjiang County. Based on the fieldwork of two sites and thetechnicalanalysis of slag,retorts,metal blocks by optical microscope and electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometry, this thesis summarizes the detailed technological characteristics of two sites,then offers comparison of the two sites and traditional zinc smelting technology,zinc smelting sites group in Chongqing,which confirmed two sites in Guangxi have Chinese technological tradition.The difference between the sites and Zawar smelting site in India indicates that Chinese technologicaltradition obviously different from India.At last, the thesis presents the scale of zincproductioninHechi before19 thcentury.