05 · PRACTICE · SHANG TECHNOLOGY

Piece-mold casting

Casting the image within a clay puzzle

The clay mold was divided into sections to obtain the shape and decoration of the bronze vessel.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Specific historical recreation of Casting the image within a clay puzzle, northern and central China, c. 1600–1046 BCE — **DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · EXISTING EDITORIAL RESOURCE · TRACEKEEPERS**
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction for museographic context; it is not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

History and context

Chinese bronzes were made with piece-mould casting: a model, clay sections, a core and molten metal poured between them. The technique allowed vessels of complex form and relief decoration.

The visitor can follow the process without treating it as an isolated invention. Techniques have ceramic antecedents and changed between workshops, objects and periods.

A clay model received a mould that was cut into sections; after removing the model, the fired pieces surrounded a core. The metal filled the space between them.

Decoration could be carved in the mould and appear sharp in the casting. Seams, cores and technical marks allow the process to be reconstructed.

Evidence and interpretation

Documented fact: The Met explains piece-mould casting for Shang ritual vessels. Interpretation and caution: Not all procedures, workshops nor decorative decisions can be reconstructed from a finished piece. Expanded documented fact: The Met describes piece-mould casting as a characteristic and probably dominant technique until the end of Shang. Expanded interpretation and caution: “Exclusive” summarises the evidence of known vessels and does not exclude local experimentation nor distinct techniques in small objects.

Catalogue facts

Narrative date: c. 1600–1046 BCE
Location: Northern and central China
Material: Clay, bronze and wooden or earthen models
Context: Specialised casting
Curatorial reading: The documented fact and its interpretation appear separately in the evidence block.
Components: Model, sectioned moulds, core and molten metal
Advantage: Decoration defined and integrated in the casting
Documentary coverage: 3 museum, heritage, primary corpus or research sources for this stop.

A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS

Objects connected through time

Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.

The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.

THE CURRENT OBJECT

Its date is not sufficiently established to place it on the timeline. We keep it here, separate from the dated objects.

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c. 1600–1046 BCE

Piece-mold casting

Ancient China

Technical process documented in several phases, not an individual piece.

Current record

Clay32 dated objects

1 / 32In the centre: Dolní Věstonice I

Also connected, without a comparable date (7)

These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.

A White Wall on the DanubeCeltic worlds · 6th century BCE
Blue that does not yieldMaya worlds · Documented use from the Classic, c. 300–1500 CE
Cyrus speaks as king of BabylonAchaemenid Persia · After the conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE
Early potteryMande Worlds · before ca. 9400 cal BCE
Made in GaramaGaramantes · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE
The unfinished gestureBatwa / Twa histories · 1947
Vessels without a languageBantu-speaking worlds · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE

You can scroll the first group without JavaScript. The other topics are also available below.

Moulds

Current object, without a comparable date: Piece-mold casting.

Moulds for gold · 9th–11th centuries CE · Mande Worlds

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

The workshop inside the ditch · 4th century BCE–3rd century CE, peak in Middle and Late Yayoi · Yayoi Japan

Casting

Current object, without a comparable date: Piece-mold casting.

Akkadian sovereign head · Akkadian period · 23rd century BCE · Sumer
Bassetki Statue · Akkadian period · 23rd century BCE · Sumer
Jue · c. sixteenth century BCE · Ancient China
Bull-leaping · c. 1600–1450 BCE · Greek worlds
Liding · 12th–11th centuries BCE · Ancient China
Talayotic sword · ≈1200–1000 BCE · destruction of the talayot towards 790 BCE · Iberians
The lute-shaped dagger · Towards 1000–400 BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
The great Greek krater of Vix · ≈530–500 BCE · Greek worlds
Scorțaru cauldron · 6th–5th centuries BCE · Thracians
A battle on a comb · Early 4th century BCE · Scythians and Saka
The blade became straight · 5th–1st centuries BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
Geometry in very fine lines · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
Eight voices in one hand · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
Fibula from Lancia · ≈300–100 BCE · Iberians
Horse fibula · 2nd century BCE · disputed chronology · Iberians
A sky over the liver · End of the second–beginning of the first century BCE · Etruscans and Rome
Thirty-nine buried bells · Buried towards the 1st century BCE–1st century CE · Yayoi Japan
Kongo crucifix · 16th–17th centuries · Bantu-speaking worlds

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

Metalworking

Current object, without a comparable date: Piece-mold casting.

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

Copper and stone · ca. 3100–2700 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Early metallurgy · c. 1900–1500 BCE · Ancient China
Four panoplies · No individual dating published on this record · Iberians
Iron changes the frontier · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
The workshop inside the ditch · 4th century BCE–3rd century CE, peak in Middle and Late Yayoi · Yayoi Japan
Weapons under the Lake · Mainly 3rd–1st centuries BCE · Celtic worlds

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

The mould was not necessarily fired like a vessel

Analyses of moulds and cores from Nanguanwai, south of the Zhengzhou wall, have questioned old estimates of very high firing temperatures. An infrared spectroscopy study identified in many samples temperatures as low as 200–300 °C. The result applies to that assemblage, not to a universal recipe for all Chinese bronzes. Its interest lies in distinguishing the thermal preparation of the clay from the later entry of molten metal: each stage solved different problems and left traces that can be investigated in the laboratory.

Research · Bichen Yan and collaborators · A new FTIR method for estimating the firing temperature of ceramic bronze-casting moulds from early China (2021)Access recorded: September 5, 2026.

Sources and references

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History and context

Evidence and interpretation

Catalogue facts

Piece-mold casting

Dolní Věstonice I

Before Sumer

Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or

Before Egypt

Before Nubia

Before Gojoseon

Bevel-rimmed bowl

Susa accounting bulla

Jemdet Nasr

Account of malt and barley

Before Yayoi

Vasiliki

Before Ancient China

Longshan

Before the Hittites

Before Pre-Inca Cultures

Queen of the Night

Plimpton 322

Sumerian King List

Love song to Shu-Sin

Si.427 tablet

Phaistos Disc

Sumerian Flood of Nippur

Boğazköy Archive

Linear B

Alaksandu of Wilusa

Treaty with Egypt

Flood Tablet

Babylonian map of the world

Glazed brick guards

Rations for women and children

Urewe vessel

A closer look

The mould was not necessarily fired like a vessel

Sources and references

Did you enjoy this exhibit?