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Standardisation and Labour Organisation in the Bronze

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Standardisation and Labour Organisation in the Bronze Standardisation, Labour Organisation and the Bronze Weapons of the Qin Terracotta Warriors By Xiuzhen Janice Li Supervisors: Dr. Marcos Martinόn-Torres Dr. Andrew Bevan Prof. Thilo Rehren A Thesis submitted to University College London in fulfilment of the degree in Doctor of Philosophy UCL Institute of Archaeology 2011 I, Xiuzhen Li, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract Alongside the thousands of terracotta warriors discovered in the tomb complex of the first emperor of China, were tens of thousands of bronze weapons, including arrowheads and crossbow triggers, lances, spears, halberds (and the ferrules associated with them), swords and a few other special types. This quantity and quality of bronze weaponry provides an extremely rare opportunity to investigate patterns of standardisation and labour organisation within a single, very large and intentional assemblage as well as to consider the role of bronze production during the Qin period (325-206 BC) which marks perhaps the most crucial early stage in Chinese political unification. This thesis draws upon extensive measurements, typological analysis and related statistical treatment, as well as a study of the spatial distribution of those bronze weapons found in the most extensively excavated part of the tomb complex (the five easternmost trenches in Pit 1). Metric data and statistical assessment of inter- and intra-group variation (e.g. coefficients of variation) suggest interesting patterns with regard to relative degrees of standardisation. A combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and point pattern analysis are used to assess formally any spatial patterning in the weapons and their analytical attributes, which then also provides further information about the labour organisation behind the production, transportation and placement of weapons as they were moved from the workshop and/or arsenal to the funeral pits. Combining these insights with those obtained from inscriptions found on some of the weapons and from ancient documents, this project investigates what technologies and crafting behaviour affected weapons production and labour organisation in a centralised imperial system. This research project fills a gap in the study of mass production, the behaviour of craftspeople and related logistical organisation in ancient China and to provide empirical data by analysing systematically on the types, dimensions and spatial patterns of Qin bronze weapons in the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s tomb complex. 3 Table of Contents Abstract Table of contents List of figures List of tables Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 16 1.2 Research review and defining research questions ............................................................ 18 1.2.1 Previous research on the bronze weapons ................................................................. 18 1.2.2 Defining research questions ........................................................................................ 21 1.3 The Emperor and his tomb complex — defining the temporal and spatial context ........... 22 1.3.1 The Qin Dynasty and Emperor Qin Shihuang ............................................................. 22 1.3.2 The tomb complex, the terracotta warriors and the bronze weapons ......................... 27 1.4 Thesis summary ................................................................................................................. 32 Chapter 2 Approaches to Standardisation and Labour Organisation 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 35 2.2 Standardisation .................................................................................................................. 35 2.2.1 A definition of standardisation ..................................................................................... 35 2.2.2 Parameters affecting standardisation .......................................................................... 36 2.2.3 How to define and measure standardisation from archaeological data? .................... 37 2.3 Standardisation and technological organisation ................................................................ 41 2.3.1 Casting and assembling .............................................................................................. 41 2.3.2 Technological models .................................................................................................. 42 2.4 Standardisation and specialisation ..................................................................................... 46 2.4.1 Specialisation .............................................................................................................. 46 2.4.2 The hypothesis of standardisation and specialisation ................................................. 49 2.5 Standardisation versus variation: copying error ................................................................. 50 2.6 Spatial signatures of workshop activity and labour organisation ....................................... 52 2.6.1 Point pattern analysis .................................................................................................. 52 2.6.2 Spatial randomness, regularity and clustering ............................................................ 53 2.6.3 First-order effect and second-order effect ................................................................... 54 2.7 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 55 4 Chapter 3 Methodology 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 57 3.2 Qualitative classification ......................................................................................................... 58 3.2.1 Functional classification of the weapons ......................................................................... 58 3.2.2 Micro-features ................................................................................................................. 62 3.2.3 Inscriptions ...................................................................................................................... 63 3.3 Sampling ................................................................................................................................ 65 3.3.1 Principles of sampling ..................................................................................................... 65 3.3.2 Sampling strategy for this project .................................................................................... 66 3.4 Dimensional measurements and quantitative analysis .......................................................... 67 3.4.1 Measuring techniques ..................................................................................................... 67 3.4.2 Metric variables ............................................................................................................... 69 3.4.3 Accuracy and precision assessment ............................................................................. 70 3.4.4 Statistical analysis ........................................................................................................... 74 3.4.4.1 Cluster analysis ........................................................................................................ 74 3.4.4.2 Principal Component Analysis .................................................................................. 75 3.4.4.3 Frequency histogram ................................................................................................ 76 3.4.4.4 Coefficient of Variation .............................................................................................. 76 3.5 Establishing a GIS database and spatial analysis ................................................................. 77 3.5.1 Original map .................................................................................................................... 78 3.5.2 Digital map ...................................................................................................................... 79 3.5.3 Using a local grid ............................................................................................................. 79 3.5.4 Spatial statistics – pair correlation functions ................................................................... 79 3.6 Integration with archaeometric data ....................................................................................... 81 3.7 Summary ................................................................................................................................ 81 Chapter 4 Inscriptions on the Weapons 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 83 4.2 Types of inscriptions .............................................................................................................. 83 4.2.1 Cast inscriptions .............................................................................................................. 84 4.2.2 Carved or chiselled inscriptions
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