Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 48 (2023) 103872 Available online 6 February 2023 2352-409X/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Investigating the origins of metals used in the Early Shang capital of Zhengzhou Zhenfei Sun a , Siran Liu a, * , Shugang Yang b , Kunlong Chen a , Jianli Chen c a Institute for Cultural Heritage and History of Science & Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China b Henan Provincial Institute of Archaeology, China c School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, China A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Metal provenance Early Shang LIA Crucible Zhengzhou ABSTRACT Lead isotope analysis of crucibles and a metal droplet has revealed new information about the provenance of the lead and copper resources used at Zhengzhou Shang City during the Upper Erligang period. The crucibles were found to be divided into three types and associated with copper smelting/refning, leaded tin bronze alloying, and bronze pouring. The copper smelting/refning crucible contains common lead ( 206 Pb/ 204 Pb = 18.12) and low Pb content in its slag layer. In contrast, the bronze processing crucibles mostly contained highly radiogenic lead ( 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ≥ 19). One bronze pouring crucible was found to have an exceptionally low 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ratio (≤17.2), indicating that it was made with recycled bronze from an earlier period. This research is the frst to reveal the lead isotope characteristics of the copper material used during the Upper Erligang period, which is strikingly different from the dominant highly radiogenic lead reported in previous research. The Middle Yangtze River Valley is tentatively proposed as the geological source. This result also shows that the Upper Erligang Shang people had a complex metal supply network, including at least southern copper, highly radiogenic lead, and recycled early bronze. 1. Introduction The archaeological remains found during the excavation in modern Anyang of Central China in the 1920s revealed the capital of the Late Shang (Bagley, 1999). For decades, it has been a major goal for ar- chaeologists working in China to identify earlier episodes of the Shang dynasty. After many expeditions, the Erligang culture was clearly identifed as the predecessor of Anyang and usually called the Early Shang culture (15th-14th century BCE) (The Monograph of Xia-Shang- Zhou Chronology Project, 2022) in archaeological literatures of China (Wang, 2014). The Erligang walled city at Zhengzhou was determined to be the frst Shang capital city and divided into four phases, namely the Lower Erligang I, II and the Upper Erligang I, II, based on stratigraphic association and pottery typology (Table 1) (Liu and Chen, 2012; An, 1988; Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, 2001). The earliest phase marked the foundation of the Shang dynasty, while the Upper Erligang period represented the peak of the Early Shang culture with a territory spanning from the Central Plain to the Guanz- hong Plain in the west, the Shandong Peninsula in the east, Central Hebei in the north and the Middle-Lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the south (Institute of Archaeology in Chinese Academy of Social Sci- ence, 2003, p. 189) (Fig. 1a). This expansion is believed to have been driven by military conquests (Bagley, 1999) aimed at controlling stra- tegic resources such as metals, salt, and agricultural land (Liu and Chen, 2012; Wang, 2014). Shang settlements such as the Yuanqu Shang City in southern Shanxi (Field Archaeology Research Center of National Museum of China, 2014), Laoniupo in the Guanzhong Plain (Liu, 2002), Daxinzhuang in the Shandong Peninsula (Fang, 2013), and Panlongcheng in the Middle reaches of the Yangtze River (Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, 2001) were identifed as regional political and cultural centers (Fig. 1a). A number of large-scale copper mining and smelting sites roughly dated to this period have been identifed at Xiwubi in the Zhongtiao Mountain, southern Shanxi (Dai et al., 2020; Li, 2011), Laoniupo in the Guanzhong Plain (Liu, 2002), Yingcheng in the Shandong Peninsula (Li et al., 2013, Wang et al., 2023), and Tongling in the Middle reaches of the Yangtze River (Cui and Liu, 2017) (Fig. 1a). The relationship between copper smelting sites, regional centers and the capital city of the Early Shang period has been investigated to refect the political structure and resource management strategy of the Early Shang * Corresponding author. E-mail address: siran.liu@ustb.edu.cn (S. Liu). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103872 Received 5 November 2022; Received in revised form 23 January 2023; Accepted 29 January 2023