Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 43 (2022) 103460 2352-409X/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Cinnabar use in Anyang of bronze age China: Study with micro-raman spectroscopy and X-ray fuorescence Jhih-Huei Liu a , Yuling He b , Weiying Ke a , Ming-chorng Hwang a , Kuang Yu Chen c, d, * a Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Nangang, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC b Anyang Archaeological Station, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China c Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, NJ, USA d Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Rutgers University, NJ, USA A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Cinnabar Shang Micro-raman XRF Coffn soils Artifacts ABSTRACT Anyang was the last capital of the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1600–1050 BCE) of China. Archaeological excavations at Anyang since 1928 has yielded inscriptions and artifacts that authenticated the Shang history and enriched our understanding of their material culture and technical achievement. Here, we have performed micro-Raman spectral analysis of artifacts recovered from royal tombs unearthed last century at Yinxu, Anyang, including a block of colored clay impressed with motif from perished woodcrafts, a stone knife, a set of small bullet-shape bronze containers, and a pottery color-container. In addition, we used micro-Raman and X-ray fuorescence (XRF) to analyze the soil sample collected from the tomb M103 excavated at Wangyukou village, Anyang in 2009. The results showed that all red coloration on artifacts and coffn soils was due to cinnabar, suggesting a wide use of cinnabar in Shang society. We also showed that micro-Raman and XRF analysis can be carried out directly on soils adsorbed on Q-tip, providing a convenient means for future on-site soil sampling and spectral analysis of cinnabar in grave area. Based on literature information we estimated that the amount of cinnabar used in Shang society would make the scale of its production on par with other major industries, such as bones, jades, and bronzes. 1. Introduction Anyang, the last capital of Shang Dynasty, was the most important site of Shang archaeology (Li, 1977; Thorp, 2005). Fig. 1 shows the location of Anyang in China and the major archaeological sites in Anyang. Fifteen seasons of excavations conducted under the auspices of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, from 1928 to 36, have unearthed magnifcent royal tombs, foundations of palaces and temples, and storage pits, some contained hundreds of thousands of bones and plastrons engraved with the earliest extant document in Chinese, known as oracle bone inscriptions (OBI). The excavation work was interrupted until 1950 due to Sino-Japanese war (1937–1945) and ensued civil war (1946–1949). With the establishment of the Anyang Archaeological Station in 1958, excavations resumed earnestly under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Science. Numerous important and exciting fndings have since been made, including an intact tomb of Fu Hao (Lady Hao, a famous consort of King Wu Ding) with rich furnishings unsurpassed by any other intact tombs of Shang and earlier period; a huge storage pit H3 containing a total of 1, 558 intact turtle shells and 25 ox bones, with inscriptions on 684 pieces of them; a large walled site at Huanbei, just across the Huan River from Yinxu (i.e. Yin Ruins); and many sites of handicraft in- dustries, including jades, bones, and bronzes (Thorp, 2005; Campbell, 2014). Cinnabar was sometimes mentioned in Shang archaeological litera- ture. For example, an early Shang tomb III M2, categorized as Erlitou culture, was reported to have cinnabar covered an area of about 2 m 2 and a depth of about 6 cm. Another nearby tomb VM3 had cinnabar at the bottom, with thickness of about 2 cm (Yang and Liu, 1983). How- ever, these reports suffered the following issues: (i) The presence of cinnabar reported was based on visual observation, with no supporting experimental evidence. (ii) Since the presence of cinnabar or ochre was usually not the focus of the feld work, a lack of mentioning of cinnabar in the report does not necessarily imply an absence of cinnabar at the * Corresponding author at: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8087, USA. E-mail addresses: hueiliu@mail.ihp.sinica.edu.tw (J.-H. Liu), aystation@qq.com (Y. He), kooangela2002@gmail.com (W. Ke), ming@mail.ihp.sinica.edu.tw (M.-c. Hwang), kychen@chem.rutgers.edu (K.Y. Chen). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103460 Received 29 September 2021; Received in revised form 26 March 2022; Accepted 21 April 2022