Baltic amber or Burmese amber: FTIR studies on amber artifacts of Eastern Han Dynasty unearthed from Nanyang.

There is no case of scientific and technological analysis on archaeological amber of Han Dynasty in China. To estimate the provenance micro-destructively, we have utilized GC/MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectromete) and FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) analysis on the amber artifacts which were excavated from the stone-carved tomb M18 around the 1st century in Nanyang City, Henan Province. GC/MS result suggests that the amber with amount lower than 150 µg is inadequate to detect significant markers. The FTIR spectra have high similarity to Burmese amber without the Baltic shoulder and the absorption peak near 887 cm-1. From this, it appears that the raw materials of these ambers were from Burma and that Burmese amber was transported to the Central China through Yunnan by free circulation in Han Dynasty.

The lead ores circulation in Central China during the early Western Han Dynasty: A case study with bronze vessels from the Gejiagou site.

This study first publishes lead isotope data of bronze vessels from Central China in Western Han Dynasty and attempts to find out the lead ores circulation of this time by taking bronzes from the Gejiagou site (Nanyang City, Henan Province) as an example. The elemental concentrations suggest the lead should be introduced on purpose and indicate the provenance information of lead ores. All the lead isotope ratios conform to the characteristics of common lead and most of them are similar to Nanyang local lead ores. The lead of another two bronzes, NY9 and NY13, should be imported from southern China. Combined with the historical background of early Western Han Dynasty, the wider range of the lead ore circulation may be an indicator for, as the loose policy, economic prosperity and transportation improvement.