Archaeometallurgical research on the bronze coins of Song Dynasty (960–1279AD) from Nanhai No. Ⅰ shipwreck, the south China sea

作者：Ma D.; Chen D.; Li N.^*; Chen Y.; Du J.; Luo W.

来源：Journal of Archaeological Science-Reports, 2022, 45: 103581.

DOI：10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103581

• Bronze coins
• ICP-AES
• MC-ICP-MS
• Nanhai No. Ⅰ shipwreck

The Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE) was a prosperous period for China's maritime trade and also an era when coins flowed abroad. Song coins were not only used as currency in neighboring countries in East and Southeast Asia at the time, but also appear to have been used as metalwork. However, many details of both maritime history and numismatics have yet to be elucidated, and even comprehensive scholarly information on indigenous Chinese currency is incomplete. In this insufficient research situation, EDXRF, metallography, MC-ICP-MS and ICP-AES were employed to investigate the alloy composition, microstructure, lead isotope and trace element characteristics of 14 Song Dynasty coins from Nanhai No. Ⅰ shipwreck in this study. The XRF results show that all the samples are Cu-Sn-Pb ternary alloy. The metallography results show three types of as-cast microstructures. According to the lead isotope ratios, the diverse provenances of the lead material of the Nanhai No. Ⅰ coins are clearly different from the Japanese ancient coins. In addition, the trace element data suggest that the copper raw materials for the coins came from several mines. These preliminary results may provide background data to facilitate questions related to the maritime history of East and Southeast Asia.

• 单位
  中国科学院大学