After 10 century BC, ancient Greece and Rome also became the development centers of glass technology. Later, glass manufacturing technology spread to the Mediterranean coast and neighboring countries.
So, when did the ancient glass products in China originate? If we want to trace the origin of ancient glass in China, it is indeed a development with a long history.
1, on the origin of ancient glass in China.
According to documents, the cultural exchange between China and the West began in the 2nd century BC. So many scholars and western scholars once thought that the ancient glass or glass manufacturing technology in China was? Introduced from the west after Zhang Qian in the Western Han Dynasty? . In fact, in the Western Zhou Dynasty, our ancient ancestors had mastered the glass manufacturing technology.
We know that glass is an uncertain solid melt. In ancient times, it was mainly composed of timely (the main component of timely is silicon dioxide) and some minerals, such as galena (the main component is lead sulfide) or alkaline salts (such as potassium and sodium), belonging to silicate system, similar to ceramics.
From the Neolithic Age to? Yangshao culture? During this period, pottery developed into painted pottery, so to speak? Glaze? Bud. Blue glaze appeared again in Shang Dynasty. For example, in 1965, a piece of green glaze was unearthed in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, which was engraved with statues of the Shang Dynasty. The mouth and shoulders are coated with thin glaze, and there are five pieces of dark green thick transparent glass glaze. According to archaeological records, the firing temperature of blue and white glaze in Shang Dynasty reached1100-1200℃, and there was a refractory crucible. During the Western and Eastern Zhou Dynasties, the furnace temperature was higher. Glaze drops formed at high temperature in the firing process of blue and white glaze are just potassium calcium silicate. This kind of glaze drop is already a glassy substance, which may be the earliest ancient glass in China.
Because the manufacturing process of enamel and glass is roughly the same, the only difference is that a container refractory crucible is needed to melt the glass. Therefore, it can be inferred that the earliest glass manufacturing technology in ancient China evolved from the blue-and-white glaze technology.
Archaeological data show that most provinces and regions in China have unearthed glass cultural relics, which can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In order to trace the origin of glass in the Han Dynasty, we compiled a list of the origins of glass in the Han Dynasty.
According to the above table, some glass objects unearthed before the Han dynasty were called? Equipment? , some are called? Glass? . What I want to explain here is, what is the name of the opaque and not very smooth glass ornaments unearthed? Artifact? And translucent glass beads, pipes, walls and glazed pottery used to decorate buildings are called? Glass? Because those unearthed transparent glassware similar to modern production are called glass.
According to the time series of unearthed glassware and the characteristics of unearthed glassware, it can be seen that glass has gone through opaque and low-gloss utensils, translucent glassware and finally transparent glassware. In fact, this reflects the development process of ancient glass technology and ancient science and technology in China.
2. On the development of ancient glass in China.
Glass production technology is closely related to glass production technology.
In ancient times, the main raw material for making glass was timely, and the melting point of quartz sand was 1750℃, which was unattainable in ancient times. However, due to the high level of metallurgical technology in ancient China. For example, in Shang Dynasty, our ancestors could already use flux. They added lead or tin, or both lead and tin, to copper to reduce its melting point from 1 100℃ to 800℃. At the same time, the hardness of copper is improved. Therefore, the ancestors of the Shang Dynasty were able to make many exquisite bronzes with different shapes, making them complex bronzes with slim and symmetrical shapes and huge bodies.
Therefore, in the process of making glass, our ancestors also added plant ash, lead oxide, saltpeter and other fluxes to the raw materials to reduce the melting point of quartz sand:
For example, the translucent eyeball unearthed in Bozhou, Anhui Province belongs to the late Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States Period, and is the earliest lead-barium silicate glass discovered by scientific detection and analysis;
Another example is the glazed wall unearthed from Zixing Eastern Zhou tombs in Changsha, Hunan Province, whose chemical composition is also lead-barium silicate glass system;
According to statistics, more than 200 pieces of glass walls, beads, seals and sword tubes with China characteristics have been unearthed from more than 65,438+000 tombs. It can be said that in the mid-Warring States period, China had established the lead-barium silicate glass industry. For example, 1965, the two pieces of blue glass embedded in the sword lattice of Gou Jian, the king of Yue, unearthed from Wang Shan, Jiangling, Hubei Province 1, are the oldest existing glass in China.
Among the earliest existing glassware in China, glass beads inlaid are the most common. For example, in 1976, more than 100 glass beads were unearthed from a tomb in Ceng Houyi, Suizhou, Hubei. Because many other glasses with different colors from the theme are embedded in monochrome glass beads, these embedded glasses form multiple concentric circles, which look like animal eyes at first glance, so they are also called? Eye of the dragonfly? . This kind of inlaid glass beads is extremely complicated and all made by hand. It was not only exquisite and gorgeous, but also a very precious and rare item at that time.
For example, Liu An, the king of Huainan, the royal family of the Western Han Dynasty, mentioned it many times in Lan Mingxun, the son of Huainan? With Hou? , compared with choi, and:
Such as with Hou Zhizhu, the jade of He Shen, the winner is expensive, and the loser is poor? .
By the Han Dynasty, the glass manufacturing technology had reached a fairly high level, and many unique glass products appeared. For example, the 1 1 antithetical ornaments unearthed from the tomb of Nanyue King in Guangzhou in the early Western Han Dynasty are all blue plate glass with gold and copper frames. The glass is even in thickness, crystal clear as a mirror, and there are almost no bubbles. Through scientific detection and analysis, these blue glasses are domestic lead-barium silicate glasses. Of course, this is not a real flat glass, but this superb glass making process has laid a solid foundation for future glass manufacturing.
Visible, China's glass manufacturing technology is not from? Zhang Qian's voyage to the West? Later, it was introduced from abroad, but it sprouted in the Western Zhou Dynasty and developed greatly during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. First, people used bronze manufacturing technology and lead oxide used in alchemy as flux to produce real glass with unique local characteristics. Lead silicate barium glass.
Later, saltpeter was used as a flux to form potassium silicate glass. By the time these two kinds of glasses developed to the Han Dynasty, the manufacturing technology was already quite superb. And spread to the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Southeast Asia and Central Asia.