Many thanks to Junli Jin, to Melanie Roy and to those who responded to me
directly. The earliest evidence of metallurgy in the western regions (Gansu,
Qinghai, Xinjiang) is a topic of extraordinary interest at present, and I look
forward to reading the results of your current research on this.

 From the various responses received, it appears that the question of whether
there is use of native copper at this period is unsettled. The deeper question
underlying this is of course whether most of the earliest metals 
recovered from
Gansu so far were locally produced, or whether they were traded in from the
steppes. I'm not of course a specialist in China, but my attention was 
drawn by
the excellent review of this question by Katheryn Linduff and Jianjun Mei in
their paper for the Society for American Archaeology electronic symposium in
2008 (to appear in Journal of World Prehistory). It occurred to me that the
presence of native copper in these artifacts might be an indication of the
earliest exploitation of ore deposits in western China, so I looked at the
table of artefacts in the appendix to the volume edited by Katheryn Linduff,
Han Rubin and Sun Shuyun (in The Beginnings of Metallurgy in China).
Unfortuately these data are inconclusive, and I have learned from your
responses that there is disagreement as to whether the "pure" coppers are
native copper or not.

Almost all the work on distinguishing native copper from smelted copper 
has been
done in north America, and I suggest that it might be valued to apply what has
been learned there to the examination of the earliest "pure" copper from
western China. I am thinking here of the large body of trace element data
compiled by George Rapp and colleagues, comparisons of the chemistry of native
and smelted copper by Michael Wayman and colleagues, and the 
microstructures of
unforged and forged native copper by Bob Maddin, Wayman and others. 
Lead isotope
work on native coppers is just starting to be done, and poses some challenges.
There is almost no data on the lead content of native coppers (lead cannot be
measured by neutron activation) but work by Kory Cooper and other on Alaskan
native copper found that lead contents were so low that it was difficult to
measure isotope ratios reliably.
--
David Killick
Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721

office:     (520)621-8685
laboratory: (520)621-7986


Quoting junli jin <[log in to unmask]>:

> Dear
> Professor Killick
> In fact, my
> dissertation is about the chronological and cultural framework of bronzes in
> northern China during the second and first millennia BCE. Therefore, 
> my concentration is about
> the cultural relations between the bronze-using cultures in northern China.
>
> The development
> of metallurgy in China differs. North-central, northwest, and central 
> China started with the tin-copper alloys from 1800 BCE, except a 
> several cases of
> Zinc-copper alloys in central China prior to this time. So far, there 
> is no evidence for the use of copper in the
> beginning of the metallurgy in north-central, northwest, and central 
> China, except
> some copper objects were identified in the third and fourth stage of the
> Zhukaigou culture, which is dated to 1900-1300 BCE. These copper may 
> be placed
> around 1500 BCE.
>
> The Qijia
> culture,  the earliest bronze-using
> culture in northwest China, is
> distributed mainly in the Gansu Province which is dating
> to 2300-1800 BCE. Over 130 metal items have been discovered. Most of 
> them have
> been identified as copper as well as some tin copper alloys. According to the
> general definition on the copper age, the early Qijia culture, in my opinion,
> can be definitely ascribed to the so-called copper age.  Up to now, 
> however, no actual evidence for
> early copper mining in this region has yet become available to confirm though
> copper and copper relevant ore deposits are confirmed.
>
> To be
> frankly, I don?t know much about the metallurgical techniques. But I have
> summarized all of the published metallurgical information so far 
> available, if
> you have interest in it, I can send you the copper information of the Qijia
> culture.
>
> If you
> search the articles with key words like ?Qijia culture? instead of copper or
> copper age in China,
> you can find many articles which will mention the use of native copper. And
> normally the scholars emphasize the relations between Qijia culture 
> and western
> cultures.
>
> Best wishes
> Junli Jin
>
>
> Do you want to comment on this?
>
> Best wishes, Ernst Pernicka
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Arch-Metals Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> On Behalf Of Dave Killick
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 6:48 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Use of native copper in China
>>
>>
>> I have a question of those of you who work on the earliest copper
>> metallurgy in China.  Is there any evidence of the use of
>> native copper
>> at the very beginning of metallurgy in China? I can't find
>> any mention
>> of this at all in the material that has been translated into English.
>>
>> With best regards
>> --
>>
>> David Killick
>>
>> Professor
>> Department of Anthropology
>> University of Arizona
>> Tucson, AZ 85721-0030
>> (520) 621-8685
>>