In these pages you’ll find:
A introduction to this research project and to our team.
An introductory page that outlines our fieldwork on mining sites.
Materials on each site or cluster of sites that we covered in our fieldwork. These consist of a brief analysis of available materials and indications of what found out about a site without visiting it, field reports, and primary results that summarise new insights gained from fieldwork and questions to be pursued.
These can be accessed from the list of visited sites and accessible materials
And here you find some maps to have a look at the geography of the region and to look up sites. (An interactive map is in the making…
For more general background, there is an introduction to the region with a focus on the exploitation of mineral deposits. This page provides general background information an requires no prior knowledge. It is also “unscientific,” simply recounting my private “general knowledge” without footnotes or a discussion of existing research. It outlines the geology, the environment, and human history, with additional notes on the modern transformation and on the sources and research approaches.
Short descriptions of metals and minerals that played a role prior to 1850. Roughly arranged in the historical sequence of exploitation history, the metals are:
- Copper, (with a note on bronze and brass)
- Tin
- Gold
- Silver
- Lead
- Iron
- Zinc
- Cobalt
- Mercury and cinnabar
- Paktung 白铜 (white copper), a highly appreciated copper-nickel alloy
Some other minerals were also mined, such as
- Orpiment, an arsenic sulphide that protects wood from rot and used as gold pigment
- Gems and precious stones
- Sulphur and Salpetre
Finally, you find definitions of some basic terms and bibliography that lists the full references of all cited works. Please note that I refrained from using footnotes in the text, but usually cite by giving the author, year and page numbers only for modern titles, and by title, juan, and page numbers for older works composed by multiple authors and commonly quoted in this fashion, such as local gazetteers 地方志, the Siku quanshu 四库全书, and others large compilations.
