2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The spread and unfolding of ancient iron forging technique in East Asia
| Project/Area Number |
12410105
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
考古学(含先史学)
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| Research Institution | HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
FURUSE Kiyohide Hiroshima university, Graduate School of Letters, Professor, 大学院文学研究科, 教授 (70136018)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KAWASE Masatoshi Hiroshima university, Graduate School of Letters, Professor, 大学院文学研究科, 教授 (30093743)
ANMA Takumi Hiroshima university, Graduate School of Letters, Assistant, 大学院文学研究科, 助手 (40263644)
AZUMA Ushio Tokushima university, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Professor, 総合科学部, 教授 (70243673)
MURAKAMI Yasuyult Ehime university, Faculty of Law and Letters, Associate professor, 法文学部, 助教授 (40239504)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2000 – 2003
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| Keywords | iron smelting / iron forging / cast iron / wrougt iron / ancient East Asia |
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| Research Abstract |
In ancient China, iron industry was highly-developed since the Age of the Warring States. So, they had high level technique about iron smelting and forging. They made plenty of cast iron by using melting furnace with a intense heat.
As iron smelting in ancient China mainly deals with cast iron, so we can find plenty of remains of having relations with casting, for example molds and melting furnaces at the archaeological sites of smelting iron. They made steel out of cast iron making full use of heat treatment techniques. And they made a large quantity of iron articles out of steel at smithies.
In ancient Korea, especialy southern part of Korea having relations with ancient Japan, people lived there imported iron smelting and forjing technique from ancient China. But it was not include carbon reduction technique by heat treatment, so ancient Korean people did not make steel out of cast iron.
In ancient Japan, iron articles were used since the Yayoi period. At the first almost all the articles were made in China and Korea, and then at last at the middle of the Yayoi period Yayoi people bigan to forge iron imported from China and Korea. But they did not only have chinese advanced iron forging technique but also they did not have korean technique. Eventually ancient Japanese iron industry was backward as compared with China and Korea.
The following is the flow chart of the developing process of the iron industry in ancient East Asia. As if it is a river, the spread of iron forging technique flows gradually from the west to the east but simultaneously the level of the technique is going down.
China iron ore - cast iron - steel and casting iron articles - iron articles and casting iron articles given carbon reduction.
Korea iron ore - wrought iron(mainly) and cast iron - steel and casting iron articles - iron articles(and casting iron articles)
Japan iron ore and iron sand(mainly) - wrought iron - steel - iron articles
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