The Tonglushan Mining and Smelting Site is located 3 kilometers north of Daye County in Hubei Province.
According toDaye County Record, the Tonglushan Mountain was flat at its top with huge rocks facing each other. After downpour of rain, dots of patina like snowflakes were left on the mountaintop, hence its name Tonglu (patina). The mining site covers an area of 8 square kilometers, with 40 tons of copper dregs piled up on the ground. This indicates that the site is a large-scale well-preserved base of mining and smelting copper with rich underground deposit.
Archaeological excavations have found hundreds of mine tunnels protected by various wooden structures. Vertical shafts, tilted shafts and levels were placed one on another and the mine was 50 meters deep. These tunnels were built from the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC) to the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). More than 1000 tools and utensils were unearthed, together with various copper-smelting stoves, among which 8 were made in the Spring and Autumn Period.
Unearthed excavation tools include wooden shovel, wooden harrow, wooden gavel, copper axe, copper mold, iron hoe, iron chisel, wooden ladle and windlass. These tools prove that advanced mine-choosing method and excavation technology were adopted during the Spring and Autumn Period. With the use of vertical shaft, tilted shaft, blind shaft and level in the excavation, people have solved such technical problems as ventilation, drainage, lifting, illumination, and tunnel protection, bringing the excavation technology to a higher level.
The shaft furnace used for smelting copper was built with red clay, quartz sand, iron ore powder, and kaolin tampered together. The shaft furnace was about 1.5 meters high, with a surface area of 0.2 square meters. Coarse copper cubes unearthed near the furnace contained over 93 % of copper, indicating that the smelting technology had already reached a high level at that time. It is estimated that 80,000-100,000 tons of copper were smelted in the Tonglushan Site from the Zhou Dynasty (11thcentury -- 256BC) to the Han Dynasty.
Only one section of the Tonglushan Mining and Smelting Site has been excavated. There are similar sites scattering in the neighboring mines. The Tonglushan Mining and Smelting Site has witnessed the superb smelting technology of ancient China.
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