The research on the history of refining technology of gold and silver in Japan based on experimental verification of "cupellation"

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The purpose of this research is to verify experimentally the process of cupellation, in which gold and silver is purified, and to confirm its history in Japan. To reveal the process of metal production chronologically is very important in the history of technology in Japan ; but, it is too difficult for a conventional approach which depends on old documents and records to gain the real image, because there are few documents especially in the ancient time. It is the feature of this research that the research is based on the scientific investigation to the newly excavated objects in the archaeological site concerning to metal productions. The technology purifying gold and silver with lead is, in general, recognized as "cupellation". In the Iwami Ginzan silver mine site, the excavated objects as to cupellation were scientifically investigated. The more-detailed cupellation system was also experimentally verified. It was confirmed that there was a chronological change in the forms and materials of furnaces for cupellation. Up to now, the technology of cupellation has been assumed to have been conveyed to the Iwami Ginzan silver mine in 1533. In this research, it was examined that the technology purifying gold and silver with lead in the latter half of the seventh century in the Asuka-Ike site in Nara Prefecture, which was one of the highest class production sites in ancient Japan, had been able to be done. It is a technology that can say that this is a prototype of so-called cupellation. This fact is important as a big result that rewrites the history of the science and technology in Japan. Moreover, the possibility that a similar technology had been being done from the latter half of the fifteenth century to the first half of the sixteenth century by the group of the Kai gold mines in Yamanashi Prefecture was found. Thus, it is thought that it was possible to contribute to clarifying a technical genealogy of "Cupellation" in our country empirically by this research.