Provenance study of Chinese proto-celadon in Western Han Dynasty

Provenance of Chinese proto-celadon during Shang-Zhou Period has been studied by a lot of scholars. There were two distinct opinions: some scholars claimed that all proto-celadon wares excavated in Northern China were manufactured in Southern China while others believed that both Southern and Northern did produce proto-celadon wares in the same period. Recently, an increasing number of researchers tend to support the viewpoint that proto-celadon has a multi-origin both in Southern China and in Northern China during this period. However, during Han Dynasty few proto-celadon wares and sherds were excavated in Northern China, it seems that all of the proto-celadon products found in Northern China came from Southern China. Several years ago, many huge proto-celadon wares were excavated in Rizhao Cemetery of Shandong Province, and some kilns and proto-celadon sherds were found in Cuipingshan site of Jiangsu Province. Both of the sites locate in Northern China and date to Western Han Dynasty. In this paper, the provenance study of the sherds from these two sites as well as those from Xiaolongjing Cemetery of Zhejiang Province were carried out by the use of dilatometer (DIL) and laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS). It was found that the northern sherds were fired at the temperature around 1200°C, with higher Fe and Ca concentration but lower Mg content than southern ones, implying the unique manufacture craft in Northern China differing from the southern ones. Our results may suggest that Chinese proto-celadon produced in Western Han Dynasty has multiple producing regions not only in Southern China but also in the north.