Description:
This paper details the examination of two early Chou Chinese bronze weapons which have remnants of iron blades. While the iron age in China began only in the late Spring and Autumn Annals period (ca. 600 B.C.) these blades date from ca. 10,000 B.C. The authors prove that the iron in these two blades is of meteoritic origin; the bronze was cast onto the iron blades. The objects are described. Radiographs, metallographs, microprobe traces, and chemical analyses are given, along with analyses and descriptions of other objects found in the same lot.
