These photos I took from Shanghai History Museum, not all photos are here, because some are of bad quanlity, that's one thing that I hate about digital cameras, just a tiny little shake and the photos becames blur. Anyone who is interested could visit the museum. (man, uploading images is a pain)

Note: click the images to enlarge


A stone axe (Yue 钺) from Liang Zhu (良渚) culture, 31st century BC to 22nd century BC.


A stone axe, the rest of the information I forgot, sorry.


Another stone axe (Yue 钺) from Liang Zhu culture, 31st century BC to 22nd century BC.


A stone axe with handle made together, the explaination below is too blury to be distinguished.


An stone axe or scepter of power, the rest of information is too blur to be read.


A stone knife or a blade from Qi Jia (齐家) culture, 23rd century BC to 19th century BC.


These stone artifacts were from a period which coincide with Xia dynasty, 21st century BC to 16th century BC. The 3 artifacts from the left are called Gui (圭), the 3 from the right are called Zhang (璋)


Stone Ge, 13th to 11th century BC., late Shang dyansty.


Stone axes called Qi (戚) from late Shang dynasty, 13th to 11th century BC.

Bronze comes next.

Click images to enlarge


Bronze spear heads from Shang dynasty, 13th to 11th century BC.


Shang dynasty Ge, 13th to 11th century BC. Only the lowest-right one was from early Shang, the rest were from late Shang period.


Different kind of bronze knifes dating from late Shang to Warring States period.


Bronze Yue 钺 from West Zhou period, 11th century BC. I love this one, it's heavy and awesome, I can imagine this open a man's skull.


Another bronze Yue 钺 from West Zhou period, 11th century BC.


A bronze blade weapon from West Zhou period, 11th century BC.


Bronze swords from early Warring-States period, 475 BC to mid 4th century BC. The upper one was the sword of King Zhou Gou 州句 of Yue 越, the lower one was from King Zhe Zhi Yu Yi 者旨於[目易] of Yue.


The upper one was a bronze spear head, the middle one was a bronze sword, both from late Spring-Autum period, dating early 6th century BC to 476 BC, the lower one is a modern replica.


Bronze Ge with bright spot (I don't know what it meant), Warring-States period, 475 to 221 BC.


Ba 巴 style bronze sword with tiger stripes pattern, Warring-States period, 475 to 221 BC.

To be continue...

Click images to enlarge.


These are interesting pieces, these Ge have blades made of iron, but the rests were made of bronze, early Spring-Autum period, 770 BC to early 7th century BC.


A cross section of a Bimetallic bronze sword, one can see different kinds of bronze were used in the making blades and the core, Warring-States period, 475 to 221 BC.


Bimetallic bronze swords, the upper one was from Warring-States period, 475 BC to 221 BC; the lower one was a sword of a king of Yue (it didn't say which one) from early Warring-States period, 475 BC to mid 4th century BC.


A bronze Ge with composition analysis.


Another bronze Ge with composition analysis.


Bronze spear heads. The upper one and lower one were from late Spring-Autum period, early 6th century BC to 476 BC; the middle one was from late Warring States period, mid 4th century BC to 221 BC, note that those 2 stripes sandwiching it were wooden protective cases.


Bronze sword of King Guang 光 of Wu 吴, late Spring-Autum period, early 6th century BC to 476 BC.


Bronze Ge. The left one was from early Warring States period, 475 BC to mid 4th century BC; the middle one was from late Warring States, mid 4th century BC to 221 BC; the right one was a Ge of Gong Zi Jia 公子加 of Cai 蔡, late Spring-Autum, early 6th century to 476 BC.


Well, that's all I could post, if any good forumer is really interested, you could visit the museum, I'm sure they have more detailed informations about these weapons better than I do, and you could see better images than these blur photos of mine.

I need armor!!!
No armor?!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Sorry Seph, I didn't see armors in exposition in the museum. I did see an Assyrian helmet in an Assyrian artfact exposition in the same museum, but I doubt it would be of use to you.

Nice pictures, It seems to be one museum where photographs are allowed. I had seen these items before via an e-mail and it is good they are placed on the forum.
The cross section of the bi-metallic sword was said to be clearly a double casting with the naked eye, and it seems likely that this was for the superior quality weapons as opposed to the mass produced short swords for infantry.
Bi-metallic weapons in texts are typically also mentioned as the weapons of Kings, so there isn't a reason to assume it was standard construction.

Edit;... I did as a co-incidence reattach a broken blade point on an east Zhou sword yesterday, a ring hilted example. The sword was broken long before I recieved it and I remember the bronze there was uniform all the way through the section where it was broken. A high tin bronze layer should be visually different according to comments from this Shanghai display and so it seemed to confirm that in that instance the common sword was cast in one action.

Armour the period that these bronze weapons date from was almost exclusivey leather, save the rare bronze helmets of generals.
Lamellar armour of iron appears at the end of the Warring States period.
A good resource for authentic armour depicted in period art and the few surviving examples would be;
Cheng Dong (etc) "Ancient Chinese Weapons; A collection of pictures" and Yang Hong "Ancient Chinese Weapons" and Albert Diens paper on armour in Ancient China up untill the Tang dynasty.
Both ancient iron and leather armour is shown in these texts.
The text of Yang Hong is a good companion to 'A collection of pictures' and it gives an impression of how much has been lost to decay, in that often only the laquered layers on the leather or paint traces had survived on suits when the organic material rotted away.
One rare find and the earliest found surviving armour so far is from the early Warring States period IIRC and is what this (much better than usual) reconstruction is based on.
The decoration on the boots is probably the bronze domes that Y. Hong notes were found on the decayed boots in another tomb...bronze fittings like studs being essentially for decoration on armour in the Zhou period)

Thanks Kenneth, it's good to know that one's hard work is being appreciated.

In Shanghai history museum, some expositions are allowed to take photos, but some are not, like the British Museum Assryrian artfacts exposition held there during July to October this year.

Hi,

Thanks for these different weapons pics. I think that you are really very lucky to have had the opportunity to take these pics because a lot of museums do not allow it.

I must say that we are also the lucky ones for you to share these photos with us.

Thank you
Pierre

Yeah, I do feel lucky that they allowed people to take photos in this exposition, unlike the Assyrian exposition in the same museum.

No problem man, always a pleasure.