Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

The study on the beginnings of copper-based metallurgy in China has made noteworthy progress over the past decades. In particular, we must consider the vehicle of art in technological discovery or invention, well-articulated by Cyril Smith: “Nearly everyone believes, falsely, that technology is applied science….Technology is more closely related to art than to science….Even less widely known, but important for what it tells of man and novelty, is the fact that historically the first discovery of useful materials, machines, or processes has almost always been in the decorative arts, and was not done for a perceived practical purpose.” Invention—often made by chance and cultivated by art-provoked curiosity—cannot be forced by a utilitarian demand, and necessity is only the driver of further innovation or improvement. To Smith, any technology starts unpredictably as a “local anomaly, a reason of misfit within the preexisting structure.” Were the Jiangzhai copper-zinc and early Balkan copper-tin both Smith’s so-called “anomalies” back to the very early stages of alloy production aesthetically or artistically nourished? Whatsoever to their makers, both the Balkan and Jiangzhai exceptional alloys have defied the prevailing paradigm of Eurasian metallurgy and the paradigm-invited anticipations that both copper-tin and copper-zinc are relatively latecomers in metallurgical evolution.