Social agency and prestige technology: serial production of gold appliqués in the early Iron Age north-west China and the Eurasian steppes

ABSTRACT

Recent discoveries in north-west China and the Central Asian steppes have shed new light on the study of power display and material connections amongst nomadic groups during the development of gold-making technology in Iron Age Eurasia. Bringing together material science and archaeological approaches, this paper presents an interdisciplinary study of serially produced gold artefacts recovered from the elite burials of north-west China, to gain a better understanding of the inventive nature of early gold-making industry. In particular, we find that the technology used to craft the gold appliqués found in the Xigou cemetery (3rd-2nd centuries BCE) in north-west China attested to the use of moulds or matrices for serial production, closely linked to technological practice of the central Asians steppes. We consider the spread of the peculiar technique and iconography as a tangible way to examine technology transfer and cultural interactions. The contextual analysis reveals that the mould-pressing technique, the animal-style gold artefacts, and the burial practice of using prestigious gold as body adornment constitute a shared set of material expressions of the status and power of nomadic elites in north-west China, Kazakhstan and southern Siberia. Technological practice, in turn, opens up new research avenues in the field, recalibrating our recognition and understanding the active involvement of material objects in human life and culture.

KEYWORDS:

• North-west China
• Eurasian steppe
• serial production
• gold appliqués
• craft production
• Iron Age

Acknowledgments

The authors want to express gratitude to Juan JI of Institute for the Preservation of Culture Heritage who provided assistance for the SEM analysis of the Xigou gold appliqués, and the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan for useful references. Special thank goes to Jack Ogden of Birmingham City University to share his insightful thoughts on the technical analysis session and the drawing of reconstruction process. We also appreciate the valuable comments from the two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [Grant no. 20YJAZH071], the Key Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China [Grant no. 18ZDA172] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China [Grant no. D5000210797].

Notes on contributors

Yan Liu

Yan Liu (DPhil Oxon., PhD Tsinghua), Associate Professor at the Research Center of Material Science and Archaeology, Institute of Culture and Heritage, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China. Her main research interests are art and archaeology of early China, interdisciplinary study of prestige gold and lacquers, and cross-cultural interactions across Eurasia.

Panpan Tan

Panpan Tan, PhD of State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China. Her main interests are technological study of the manufacturing techniques of ancient gold and silver, and their transmissions.

Junchang Yang

Junchang Yang, Professor at the Research Center of Material Science and Archaeology, NPU Institute of Culture and Heritage, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China. His research interests are the technological study of historic gold and silver, manufacturing techniques and conservation study of ancient bronzes.

Jian Ma

Jian Ma, Tang scholar, Professor, Dean of School of Culture Heritage, Northwest University of China. His research interests are Nomadic cultures in eastern Eurasian steppes from Bronze Age to Early Iron Age. He had investigated and excavated several sites along the Yinshan Mountains, the Hexi Corridor and the Tianshan Mountains.