New Research on Ancient Chinese Metallurgy

The McDonald Institute hosted a symposium entitled New Directions in the Archaeology of Bronze in Ancient China on Tuesday 13th November 2007, as part of a workshop for authors on the Science and Civilisation in China project. This ongoing publication project was founded by Joseph Needham, embracing not only the history of science and technology in China, but also a deep and sympathetic understanding of the historical contexts in both East and West. The first seven volumes, authored by Needham and an international team of collaborators, have already been published by Cambridge University Press. The current symposium and workshop formed part of the preparation for the next volume of Science and Civilisation in China, which will cover non-ferrous metallurgy.

The symposium saw four leading scholars in this field present research on the Chinese Bronze Age and its wider context in Eurasia: Prof. Mei Jianjun (University of Science and Technology, Beijing), Dr. Robert Murowchick (Boston University), Dr. Li Yung-ti (Academia Sinica, Taipei) and Professor Su Rongyu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing). The discussion covered the broadening approaches to the topic involving interdisciplinary collaborations between archaeology, science, ethnography, and history of art. The symposium was co-organised by Dr Harriet Hunt and Xinyi Liu for the McDonald Institute, and Dr Christopher Cullen and Sue Bennett for the Needham Research Institute.