论文标题：Surface chromium on Terracotta Army bronze weapons is neither an ancient anti-rust treatment nor the reason for their good preservation

期刊：Scientific Reports

作者：Marcos Martinón-Torres, Xiuzhen Li, Yin Xia, Agnese Benzonelli, Andrew Bevan, Shengtao Ma, Jianhua Huang, Liang Wang, Desheng Lan, Jiangwei Liu, Siran Liu, Zhen Zhao, Kun Zhao, Thilo Rehren

发表时间：2019/04/04

数字识别码： 10.1038/s41598-019-40613-7

原文链接：https://nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40613-7

《科学报告》发表的一项研究指出，秦兵马俑的青铜兵器上存在铬可能并不是一种先进保护方法的证据。研究表明，铬的存在可能是生漆污染的结果，这些生漆曾被用来处理兵器的木制部分。这一结论挑战了一种长期存在的假说，即秦代匠人在2000多年前就掌握了涂铬防锈技术。

西安的秦兵马俑是为守护秦始皇（前259年-前210年）而制作。兵马俑遗址最早于上世纪70年代在西安发掘，迄今已出土了2000件保护完好的陶俑，所配兵器功能完好。此前有研究认为，这些兵器之所以保护较好，是因为秦代工匠在防锈处理中使用了铬，让兵器入土后能免于腐蚀。

Marcos Martinon-Torres和同事分析了464件遗址出土的兵器，只在37件中发现了铬。他们认为这些兵器上的铬是由秦代工匠使用的生漆污染所致。作者在88%的兵器配件周围检测到了铬，如弓把、剑柄或剑鞘；但只在2%或更少的箭头或剑身样本上发现了铬。作者认为，出现这种分布是因为这些金属部位更靠近处理木制元素的生漆，而木制部分已经受到了腐蚀。此外，作者还提出了其它可能对兵器有保护作用的因素，比如一些青铜兵器的含锡量较高，以及遗址土壤的成分。

摘要：For forty years, there has been a widely held belief that over 2,000 years ago the Chinese Qin developed an advanced chromate conversion coating technology (CCC) to prevent metal corrosion. This belief was based on the detection of chromium traces on the surface of bronze weapons buried with the Chinese Terracotta Army, and the same weapons’ very good preservation. We analysed weapons, lacquer and soils from the site, and conducted experimental replications of CCC and accelerated ageing. Our results show that surface chromium presence is correlated with artefact typology and uncorrelated with bronze preservation. Furthermore we show that the lacquer used to cover warriors and certain parts of weapons is rich in chromium, and we demonstrate that chromium on the metals is contamination from nearby lacquer after burial. The chromium anti-rust treatment theory should therefore be abandoned. The good metal preservation probably results from the moderately alkaline pH and very small particle size of the burial soil, in addition to bronze composition.

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（来源：科学网）