Prof. Zhengyao Jin: Attending the Fifth Forbes Symposium as an Invited Speaker

The Forbes symposia series focusing on the scientific research in the field of Asian art is a series of biannual symposia since 2001 to highlight recent scientific and technical studies of the arts of Asia. To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Freer Chinese bronzes technical studies, by R. J.

Gettens, the Fifth Forbes Symposium with the theme of "Studies of Ancient Asian Metallurgy using Scientific Methods", was held in the Freer Gallery of Arts in Washington D.C. from October 26 to October 30, 2010. Twenty one delegates form Britain, France, China, America, Belgium and Vietnam were invited to this symposium.

Prof. Zhengyao Jin from the Archaeometry Laboratory of USTC attended this Symposium and gave a report with the title of "Recent Discoveries concerning Metallurgy in Bronze Age Yunan". This studies was carried out by Prof. Jin's team cooperated with the archaeologists from Archaeology Institute of Yunnan Province.

This is the first report on a rare metal remains among the objects unearthed from Jinlianshan site, which directly related to a procedure of metal production in the bronze age Yunnan. The report also presented the metallographic analysis, secondary electron backscatter image analysis with scanning electron microscope, trace elements and Cu isotope analysis with MC-ICP-AES/MS methods.

The results of this studies generated the delegates' wide concern.

After the symposium, Prof. Jin visited the International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History in Boston University, and gave a talk with the tile of "Copper, Tin, and Lead: The Archaeology of Metal Resources in Bronze Age Southwest China" on November 2, and then visited the department of anthropology in Harvard University, and gave a talk with the tile of "Archaeological Smelted Copper and Reconstruction of an Ancient Metal History in the Bronze Age Yunnan" on November 5.

Exchanging with the counterparts in Boston University and Harvard University, Prof. Jin introduced the progress in the archaeology of metal resources with the application of high-tech in the Archaeometry Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, both sides also had a broad negotiation on the promotion of further cooperation.

(Archaeometry Laboratory of USTC)