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Plan of Pit 1 showing the spatial distribution of: left) warriors; and right) weapon types (including crossbow triggers).
Source publication
The Terracotta Army that protected the tomb of the Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang offers an evocative image of the power and organisation of the Qin armies who unified China through conquest in the third century BC. It also provides evidence for the craft production and administrative control that underpinned the Qin state. Bronze trigger mechanisms...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... the pits of the Terracotta Army, the wooden and bamboo parts of the crossbows have perished after 2000 years, but fortunately the bronze triggers have largely survived in good condition (SIAATQ 1988: 280-96). The vast majority of these come from the extensive excavations in the easternmost area of Pit 1 (SIAATQ 1988: 10) (Figure 2). Some 216 triggers, considered in this paper, were discovered here, most lying with numerous arrows next to their crossbowmen in the front corridor or along the two side corridors. ...
Citations
... one of the few studies employing quantitative spatial analysis on Etruscan case studies and providing a foundation for future investigations by us and other researchers. Compared with most other studies applying PPA (e.g., Bilotti et al., 2024;Carrero-Pazos et al., 2019;Costanzo et al., 2021), here we delimited the study area to surveyed areas (an approach similar to Bilotti and Campeggi, 2021;Li et al., 2014), which would reduce the impact of research intensity and recovery biases, assuming an underlying coherence in each survey project. This approach enhances the confidence of the conclusions drawn here and data from future projects might be used to enlarge seamlessly the area of the models presented here. ...
This paper analyses settlement patterns using data from several archaeological surveys in Central Italy over the last 70 years, focussing on the Orientalising, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods (700-30 BCE). The first two in particular represent a crucial time for the development of Etruscan urban, social, and economic structures. Employing Point Pattern Analysis (PPA), we investigate site location patterns, environmental covariate relationships , and land suitability, examining variations over time. These centuries witnessed significant landscape restructuring, with Bronze Age settlements giving way to larger, defensively positioned sites, marking the emergence of Etruscan metropoles. The consolidation of urban, social, and political structures peaked between the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, driven by land and resource exploitation. However, the 5th century saw site contraction due to declining maritime supremacy and Rome's rising influence, with the northern sector adapting more successfully. Despite the uneven application of PPA in Etruscan archaeology, its integration offers deeper insights into Etruscan settlement patterns. Our study leverages advanced computational methods and Free and Open-Source Software to provide robust, updated analyses, contributing to the evolving interdisciplinary landscape of Etruscan studies.
... En arqueología, este fenómeno se ha enfocado en el análisis de similitud en las características de los artefactos con el propósito de calcular la probabilidad de compartir rasgos en la producción dependiendo de la distancia espacial (Aguilera Martín, 1998;Li et al., 2014;Aubán et al., 2017;Coto-Sarmiento et al., 2018). Es decir, si grupos distintos fabricasen un artefacto igual o parecido, la probabilidad de compartir similares atributos en este artefacto será más alta entre los grupos más cercanos que entre los más alejados. ...
... El enfoque evolutivo puede suponer una alternativa o combinación a estos métodos para el análisis de los artefactos cerámicos (Neff, 1992;Neiman, 1995;Eerkens y Lipo, 2007). Como se explicó anteriormente, en los últimos años, el enfoque evolutivo en arqueología ha estado ligado al análisis de patrones de variación en distintos artefactos arqueológicos, usando una metodología más cuantitativa o computacional como alternativa a los estudios de clasificación clásica (Eerkens y Lipo, 2007;Mesoudi y O'Brien, 2008b;Li et al., 2014;Baldi y Roux, 2016). El propósito de este enfoque ha sido principalmente examinar cómo los artefactos cerámicos fueron creados, transmitidos o eliminados a través del tiempo y las razones que evidenciaron tales cambios usando una combinación interdisciplinar a la investigación. ...
La producción cerámica es una actividad cultural que permite trazar el modo en que una comunidad transmite conocimientos. El resultadio de explorar estos mecanismos de elaboración de un artefacto posibilita la reconstrucción de los procesos de producción de una parte de la estructura social que se refleja en el registro arqueológico. En este artículo se describe la importancia de un marco evolutivo para el estudio de las sociedades, enfocado en los contextos de producción cerámica. Se analizarán los principales mecanismos y formas de transmisión cultural que intervienen en el contexto de la elaboración de un artefacto, así como los nuevos retos con relación a los estudios evolutivos de artefactos dentro de una sociedad. Finalmente, se planteará una alternativa a los estudios historicistas clásicos con la combinación de un enfoque evolutivo que ofrece una serie de herramientas tanto teóricas como metodológicas al estudio de la producción cerámica.
... Our previous research has shown that the weapons in Pit 1 occur in morphological and chemical groups that are spatially distributed across the pit in clusters that most likely represent individual production batches and/or the output of specific workshop units [15][16][17] . Given the uneven presence/absence of chromium on the weapons, we hypothesised that only certain weapon batches, perhaps those made in a particular workshop, had been treated with chromium. ...
... Given the uneven presence/absence of chromium on the weapons, we hypothesised that only certain weapon batches, perhaps those made in a particular workshop, had been treated with chromium. However, spatial analysis shows that the distribution of chromium-bearing weapons is largely random (Fig. 5) and it does not correlate with the distribution of the weapon production batches identified previously [15][16][17] . This evidence suggests that the chromium presence is not the result of deliberate action. ...
For forty years, there has been a widely held belief that over 2,000 years ago the Chinese Qin developed an advanced chromate conversion coating technology (CCC) to prevent metal corrosion. This belief was based on the detection of chromium traces on the surface of bronze weapons buried with the Chinese Terracotta Army, and the same weapons’ very good preservation. We analysed weapons, lacquer and soils from the site, and conducted experimental replications of CCC and accelerated ageing. Our results show that surface chromium presence is correlated with artefact typology and uncorrelated with bronze preservation. Furthermore we show that the lacquer used to cover warriors and certain parts of weapons is rich in chromium, and we demonstrate that chromium on the metals is contamination from nearby lacquer after burial. The chromium anti-rust treatment theory should therefore be abandoned. The good metal preservation probably results from the moderately alkaline pH and very small particle size of the burial soil, in addition to bronze composition.
... CV has successfully been applied in previous studies of weaponry to assess standardisation of production along with multivariate methods, by measuring and comparing the variability of key dimensions and features ( Li et al., 2014;Martinón-Torres et al., 2014), even if the weapons studied were made of bronze cast in moulds and therefore not comparable to the wrought weapons studied here. Whilst this approach, common in previous studies (see references above) allows for a relative comparison of certain elements of the form, it does not enable a com- parison of the overall appearance -the shape. ...
... Thus, the study of ar- tefact variability has more often been appreciated in terms of variability of specific dimensions and/or features rather than overall shape. For example, Li et al. (2014) had to supplement metric dimensions with qualitative observations of object shape and microstyle in order to capture a fuller range of variability. This mode of analysis, although insightful, is not the only means of comparing items within a group, whether they were produced by industrial or pre-industrial methods. ...
Traditionally, standardisation of manufacture has been investigated using metrics (e.g. length and width) and compared in terms of the coefficient of variation (CV). This paper argues that standardisation should not only be investigated via metrics, but also in terms of shape. An Iron Age lance head type ('Havor'), known from three main weapon depositions in Southern Scandinavia, is used as a case study to test the effectiveness of shape analysis against traditional metric analysis for investigating standardisation. Geometric morphometric (GMM) analysis is used to measure the overall shape variation and to test shape difference of the same lance type coming from three different archaeological sites. The results demonstrate GMM to complement the traditional metric approach. Whilst metric measurements offer insights into Havor lance standardisation, the results from multivariate analysis of GMM data provides further explanation about the source of variation in terms of shape, including an assessment of object symmetry. This paper represents the first known methodological application of GMM analysis to iron weapons and demonstrates it to be an effective method for studying product standardisation in terms of shape variation.
... Likewise, by combining chemical data with detailed studies of style and manufacturing traits, it is possible to assign artifacts to indi- vidual workshops or artisans, or specific metal batches, under the broader level of "provenance regions," even when the geological source of raw materials may remain unknown (e.g., Leusch et al. 2015;Martinón-Torres and Uribe-Villegas 2015). Microtypological analyses, aided by geometric mor- phometrics, can help identify objects that were cast in the same molds (e.g., Forel et al. 2009;Li et al. 2014;Monna et al. 2013). This information is useful for a more detailed characterization, not only of production organization or the make up of a hoard but also of mechanisms for trade and interaction across longer distances. ...
... Likewise, by combining chemical data with detailed studies of style and manufacturing traits, it is possible to assign artifacts to indi- vidual workshops or artisans, or specific metal batches, under the broader level of "provenance regions," even when the geological source of raw materials may remain unknown (e.g., Leusch et al. 2015;Martinón-Torres and Uribe-Villegas 2015). Microtypological analyses, aided by geometric mor- phometrics, can help identify objects that were cast in the same molds (e.g., Forel et al. 2009;Li et al. 2014;Monna et al. 2013). This information is useful for a more detailed characterization, not only of production organization or the make up of a hoard but also of mechanisms for trade and interaction across longer distances. ...
Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeological and science-based research for well over a century. Archaeometallurgical studies have largely focused on determining the geological origin of the constituent metals, copper and tin, and their movement from producer to consumer sites. More recently, the effects of recycling, both temporal and spatial, on the composition of the circulating metal stock have received much attention. Also, discussions of the value and perception of bronze, both as individual objects and as hoarded material, continue to be the focus of scholarly debate. Here, we bring together the sometimes-diverging views of several research groups on these topics in an attempt to find common ground and set out the major directions of the debate, for the benefit of future research. The paper discusses how to determine and interpret the geological provenance of new metal entering the system; the circulation of extant metal across time and space, and how this is seen in changing compositional signatures; and some economic aspects of metal production. These include the role of metal-producing communities within larger economic settings, quantifying the amount of metal present at any one time within a society, and aspects of hoarding, a distinctive European phenomenon that is less prevalent in the Middle Eastern and Asian Bronze Age societies.
... Earle, 1981; Torrence, 1986; Costin, 1991; Stark, 1991; Costin and Hagstrum, 1995; Clark, 1995; Eerkens and Bettinger, 2001; Roux, 2003; Eerkens and Lipo, 2005; Sun, 2008), including plenty of work on Chinese material culture (e.g. Bagley, 1995; Ledderose, 2000; Underhill, 2002; Li, 2007; Sun, 2008) and previous collaboration by the authors (Li, 2012; Li et al., 2014; Martinón-Torres et al., 2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2016.04.002 0278-4165/Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. ...
... All rights reserved. (Yuan, 1984Yuan, , 1990 Huang, 1990; Li, 2012; Li et al., 2011 Li et al., , 2012 Li et al., , 2014 Yuang and Liu, 2009), most treatments so far have placed their emphasis on how basic decipherment might complement the evidence for artisanal practice that is preserved in the documentary record. In contrast, there has been no systematic attention given to the spatial location of such marks, nor to comparison-andcontrast between the marks on the terracotta figures and those on the bronze weapons. ...
... This paper aims to revisit these marks with the above opportunities in mind, and reflects a wider collaborative effort combining metallurgical, chemical, quantitative and spatial analysis (e.g. Li, 2012; Li et al., 2011 Li et al., , 2014 Martinón-Torres et al., 2011 Bevan et al., 2013 Bevan et al., , 2014 ) to investigate the nature of the craft logics and logistical efforts (a) underpinning Qin ceramic warrior and bronze weapon production, (b) underwriting the layout and construction of the mausoleum pits, and ultimately also arguably (c) contributing to the emergence and administration of the Qin empire itself (Fig. 1). ...
... With growing and deserved prominence, Ian Freestone has championed a focus on 'the batch' e the output of an individual production event e, as an analytical category that may be identified through chemical analyses and allows higher-resolution insight into the organisation of production and consumption than usually afforded (Freestone et al., 2009aFreestone et al., , 2009bFreestone et al., , 2010 see also Blackman et al., 1993; Bezúr, 2003). In a similar vein, an ongoing study of the Terracotta Army of China is employing morphometric and chemical traits of finished objects as proxies for small production cells working on a single, large commission of highly-standardised bronze weapons and ceramic warriors (Bevan et al., 2014; Li et al., 2014 ; Martin Yuan, 2014). Even though the batches identified and discussed in these papers are likely to represent the work of relatively small groups rather than single individuals, they are increasingly showing the potential of research on craft production and consumption that disentangles the internal diversity of the 'production areas' or 'technological traditions' of more common approaches. ...
Unlike art historians, archaeologists rarely make systematic attempts at attributing artefacts to individual artisans - they stop at the broader category of 'provenance regions' or 'technical styles'. The identification of archaeological individuals, however, allows detailed insight into the organisation of workshops, knowledge transmission, skill, and the tension between individual and social agency. This paper reviews the potential of archaeological science methods to identify individual artisans through the study of material culture. Focusing on the Muisca votive goldwork of Colombia, it combines stylistic, chemical and microscopic analyses to identify idiosyncratic motor habits, material selections and artistic preferences that allow the identification of individual makers and manufacturing events. The results are informative of the internal dynamics between the Muisca technological tradition, religious behaviour and craft specialists. We conclude by outlining the potentials and challenges of science-based archaeological connoisseurship in other contexts.
... Our preliminary study below draws on a selection of warriors from the most extensively investigated part of the complex and the most widely known group of terracotta warriors, Pit 1, and is part of an ongoing cooperative project studying the construction methods and logistical organisation underpinning the terracotta army and Qin Shihuang mausoleum complex, especially from the perspective of materials science, shape analysis and spatial modelling (e.g. Li et al., 2011 ; Martin Torres et al., 2013; Bevan et al., 2013; Li et al., 2014). ...
... 3 (2, 17, 29),Fig. 4a (28)), there is also considerable variation to the extent that, in contrast to the warriors' highly standardised bronze weapons for example (Martin Torres et al., 2013; Li et al., 2014), no two ears are strictly the same. Likewise, there is as yet little evidence for a close relationship between ear microstyle and the limited inscriptional evidence naming the foreman in charge of the construction of a particular warrior or the occasional mention of place-names (perhaps distinct workshop locales or worker origins) such as the capital at Xianyang ( " Xian " ) or the imperial palace ( " Gong " ). ...
Structure-from-motion and multiview-stereo together offer a computer vision technique for reconstructing detailed 3D models from overlapping images of anything from large landscapes to microscopic features. Because such models can be generated from ordinary photographs taken with standard cameras in ordinary lighting conditions, these techniques are revolutionising digital recording and analysis in archaeology and related subjects such as palaeontology, museum studies and art history. However, most published treatments so far have focused merely on this technique's ability to produce low-cost, high quality representations, with one or two also suggesting new opportunities for citizen science. However, perhaps the major artefact scale advantage comes from significantly enhanced possibilities for 3D morphometric analysis and comparative taxonomy. We wish to stimulate further discussion of this new research domain by considering a case study using a famous and contentious set of archaeological objects: the terracotta warriors of China's first emperor.
Salah satu sejarah kehidupan dinasti pada sejarah Tiongkok mencatat Dinasti Qin (221 – 206
SM) sebagai salah satu dinasti yang berperan dalam keberhasilannya menyatukan beberapa negara
yang berperang untuk mendapatkan suatu supremasi yang direbutkan pada masa Dinasti Zhou
(1046 – 221 SM). Sistem pemerintahan yang berpusat pada kekaisaran menjadikan dinasti di
Tiongkok dipimpin oleh seorang kaisar, pada pembahasan ini bahwa kaisar pertama di Dinasti Qin
adalah Kaisar Qin Shi Huang yang berhasil menyatukan negara-negara yang berperang demi
supremasi pada masa Dinasti Zhou sehingga secara tidak langsung Kaisar Qin telah berhasil untuk
menyelesaikan konflik antar negara tersebut dan mendapat gelar Qin Shi Huangdi. Atas usahanya
dalam keberhasilan menyatukan 7 negara tersebut membuat Kaisar Qin dipandang sebagai seorang
pemimpin yang berjasa meskipun selama kepemimpinannya berjalan secara kejam, kekejaman ini
mengarah pada terbentuknya bangunan-bangunan besar semasa berdirinya Dinasti Qin yang kini
menjadi bentuk peninggalan arkeologis. Kekejaman yang dilakukan oleh Kaisar Qin mengundang
banyak kudeta untuk membunuhnya sehingga berdampak pada keinginan Kaisar Qin untuk hidup
abadi dan mempersiapkan kematiannya dengan membangun makam untuk dirinya sendiri yang
dilengkapi dengan susunan bangunan serupa dengan istana yang menjadi harapan Kaisar Qin
untuk dapat melanjutkan kepemimpinannya di alam lain, salah satu hal yang menarik untuk diteliti
dalam struktur pembangunan makam Kaisar Qin adalah karena di dalamnya terdapat Terracotta
Army atau Tentara Terakota yang menjadi bagian dari persiapan kehidupan abadi yang diharapkan
oleh Kaisar Qin.
