Study of colored lacquerwares from Zenghou Yi Tomb in Early Warring States

Abstract

Zenghou Yi Tomb (433 BC) in the early Warring States Period of China is a very important archaeological discovery. Lots of lacquerware was unearthed here, typically representative of that from Chu in the Warring States Period. This article presents analyses of the lacquered inner coffin and a lacquered zither from the tomb, and their surface is red lacquer, supplemented by additional black and yellow patterns. Yellow painted lacquerware remains relatively rare from this period and therefore deserves further study. Numerous methods including three-dimensional (3D) video microscopy and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (Py-GC/MS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy as well as enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) were adopted to analyze the lacquer and pigments from the two artifacts. The results of this study reveal that lacquer samples from both the two artifacts have multilayered structures and contained added eggs and oil. The red pigment on the lacquer surface was made of cinnabar mixed with lacquer, the black one was carbon black mixed with lacquer, while the yellow one was pararealgar mixed with gelatin. These differences may explain the relative rarity of yellow painted lacquerware from early periods.