Guxing iron smelting site

Guxing iron smelting site is 20 kilometers northwest of Zhengzhou city. It covers an area of 120000 square meters. At present, it is found that there are two large ironmaking blast furnaces with oval hearth, furnace wall and furnace base rammed with black brown refractory soil, and there are smelting wooden remains in front of and on the side of the furnace. A large number of complete sets of casting molds and iron products were unearthed near the blast furnace. Most of them have the inscription of "Heyi". The products are mainly production tools. During the excavation, 14 pottery kilns and boat shaped pits were excavated. The age of the site is from the middle Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty. The excavation of materials proves that it is an official smelting and casting workshop, which is of great significance to the study of China's Metallurgical history.

Guxing iron smelting site

Guxing iron smelting site, a national key cultural relic protection unit, is located 20 kilometers northwest of Zhengzhou city. The site is 400 meters long from north to South and 300 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of 120000 square meters. It is the No.1 Workshop of Tieguan in Henan Province, or "Heyi" for short. It is the largest and earliest iron smelting site found in the world. In guxing iron smelting site, the remains of two large-scale iron smelting blast furnaces are parallel to each other in East and West. The hearth is oval, with an area of 8.5 square meters, a furnace wall thickness of 1 meter, and a furnace base depth of 3 meters. In front of the furnace, 13 pieces of accumulated iron of different sizes were cleared, one of which weighs about 23 tons. There is a spacious working face in front of the furnace, and there are slag pits in the East and south of the smelting area, with slag accumulation thickness of more than 6m. Around the furnace, there are ore processing plant, elevated, blast pipe debris, water wells, pools and other facilities, forming a complete smelting system.

Guxing iron smelting site was discovered in 1965. Two excavations were carried out in 1965 and 1975. The remains of two iron smelting blast furnaces of the Han Dynasty, water wells, pools, boat shaped pits, four corner pillar pits, and pottery pits were excavated. There were also pottery blast pipes, firebricks, pottery molds for casting iron models, 318 pieces of iron ware, more than 380 pieces of pottery, and 8 pieces of stone tools.

Guxing iron smelting site is the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units announced in 2001.

Historical evolution

Guxing iron smelting site is 20 kilometers northwest of Zhengzhou city. The site is 400 meters long from north to South and 300 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of 120000 square meters. It is the No.1 Workshop of Tieguan in Henan Province, or "Heyi" for short. It is the largest and earliest iron smelting site found in the world. It is found that there are two large ironmaking blast furnaces with oval hearth, furnace wall and furnace base rammed with black brown refractory soil, and there are smelting wooden remains in front and side of the furnace.

It was discovered in 1965. In 1965 and 1975, the iron smelting site of Han Dynasty in guxing town was excavated twice. Two large-scale iron smelting blast furnaces, water wells, pools, boat shaped pits, four corner pillar pits, pottery pits, etc. were excavated. There were also pottery models for making blast pipes, firebricks and casting iron models, 318 pieces of iron, more than 380 pieces of pottery, 8 pieces of stone tools, and more than 10 pieces of large iron The heaviest is 23 tons.

Cultural relics

The discovery of these big iron blocks was very interesting. In 1975, during the cultural revolution, the members of guxing village dug out the heavy iron blocks. The steel shovel didn't move, and the iron shoulder couldn't pry. They couldn't get out of the way. They helped the tractor and tied the soil cable to pull the big iron blocks to the ground one by one. They did not expect that these small iron blocks became the physical witness in the Han Dynasty iron smelting site museum.

The iron smelting site in guxing reflects that the metallurgical technology of Han Dynasty in China has reached the highest level of black metal smelting and casting technology. The remains of two large-scale ironmaking blast furnaces lie side by side, 14.5 meters apart. The furnace base is 3 meters deep, the hearth is oval, the area is 8.5 square meters, and the furnace wall is 1 meter thick. The volume of No.1 oval shaft furnace can reach 50 cubic meters, which is the largest ironmaking furnace in ancient China. The daily output is estimated to be 0.5-1 ton, and it was also the largest blast furnace in the world at that time. In the west, it was not until the middle of the 16th century that a round blast furnace appeared, which is a miracle in the history of iron smelting in the world.

Metallurgical Technology

The metallurgical technology found in Zhengzhou area represents the highest level of metallurgical technology in the Han Dynasty, and is far ahead in the world at that time. Among the 318 pieces of ironware unearthed, there are 206 farm implements such as plough, plowshare, shovel, hoe, concave type pin, pin, pin and double tooth pin, 5 hand tools such as chisel, chisel and hammer, 9 hexagonal bearings and gears, and more than 10 farm implements have the inscription "Heyi".

In addition to smelting a large amount of pig iron, this workshop also produces a large number of iron molds with pig iron casting tools and tools, such as shovels, knives, etc. It shows that in Han Dynasty, iron was widely used in agriculture and handicraft production, and the productivity had an unprecedented development.

Site discovery

The discovery of guxing iron smelting site occupies an important position in the metallurgical history of China and even the world.

According to the analysis of ore processing plant, elevated structure, blast facilities, ore, coal cake and other relics, combined with the water well in front of the furnace and the pool behind the furnace, it can be seen that not only a high-level smelting and casting system had been formed in the Han Dynasty, but also coal was used as fuel and preheating blast technology had been applied.

A large number of complete sets of casting molds and iron products were unearthed near the blast furnace. Most of them have the inscription of "Heyi". The products are mainly production tools. During the excavation, 14 pottery kilns and boat shaped pits were excavated. The age of the site is from the middle Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty. The excavation of materials proves that it is an official smelting and casting workshop, which is of great significance to the study of China's Metallurgical history.

Academic significance

In order to explore the smelting and application of metals by early human beings, the second International Symposium on "early smelting and application of metals" was held in Zhengzhou in October 1986. A total of 74 experts and scholars from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Italy, Yugoslavia, Japan and India attended the meeting. Visiting and studying the Han Dynasty iron smelting site in guxing is an important part of this conference. Its position in the history of iron smelting in the world can be imagined.

Cultural relics protection

In June 2001, the State Council announced that guying iron smelting site is the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

In 2006, the old city of Xingyang was merged with the fifth batch of national key cultural relic protection units, the ancient iron smelting site of Xingyang.

Address: guxing Town, Huiji District, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province

Longitude: 113.542985

Latitude: 34.891748

Chinese PinYin : Gu Ying Ye Tie Yi Zhi