The earliest metal in western Tibet: Evidence from the Gepa Serul cemetery

Abstract

Abstract The earliest copperwares excavated in western Tibet to date were found in the Gepa Serul cemetery in Zanda county, Ngari prefecture, Tibet, China, which can be dated to c.3600–3000 bp. This significant archaeological discovery provides valuable materials for the study of early metallurgy in prehistoric Tibet. This research applies scientific methods involving scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive spectroscopy (SEM‐EDS), X‐ray fluorescence (XRF), optical microscopy (OM) and multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC‐ICP‐MS) to carry out analyses on the components, microstructures and Pb isotope ratios of Gepa Serul Phase I copperwares. The results show that their alloy types contain both pure copper and arsenic copper, the latter of which has not previously been recovered from archaeological contexts in Tibet. These artefacts were produced primarily by forging, supplemented by casting. Lead isotope analysis (LIA) reveals that the copper ores used most likely came from multiple sources, some of which may be local to the Tibet area. The Pb isotope values of the copperwares from Gepa Serul Phase I are very similar to those from the Sam Dzong cemetery in Nepal, implying that the metal resources used by the two sites are likely to be correlated.

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