I would like to share some pictures of a Dian culture axe that I have had for a few years.
I was unsure of its authenticity at first, and was only 50-50 about it for most of the time, being uncertain either way.
By taking apart a crude repair that held together a fragmented portion I have been able to see signs of internal corrosion of the bronze which is enough for me to be satisfied this is a true ancient piece. These cross sections are quite typical for a corroded bronze, and directly comparible to published metallurgical analysis of ancient metals.
Another reason the piece came to mind again recently is that I saw 3 almost identical examples in the Kunming museum collection in Yunnan.
Those axes were from 2 different sites, but within the Dian cultural sphere. Perhaps 2 of them had come from the same mold since their dimensions and decoration were indistinguishable, and there was perhaps only a slight size difference with the other. The designs on these were also so exact that although I didn't have my Dian axe to place side-by-side I felt it also may have came from the same centre, if not the same mold.
Their distinctive band motifs are shown in various forms on weapons from the principal Dian sites that have been excavated on the southern area of Lake Dian. Similar themed decorations can be seen amongst assemblages of Dian weapons, Yang Hong's "Weapons in Ancient China" being one such text.
The bands on these axes such as seen here are comprised of 4 sections:
Mountain above a cloud band.
The earth below the clouds.
Beneath the earth layer is a water band.
Mountain-Cloud-Earth-Water.

Lake Dian near Kunming, from which the Dian culture gets its name, is a huge expanse. From an aircraft it has the appearance of an ocean coastline.
Many lakes, some of them of large size, exist within the Dian cultural zone. Signifigant mountains exist along the edges of lake Dian with the modern Kunming city being at a high altitude, and hence quite temperate {The city of Eternal Spring, as it is known}. This was the world of the Dian.

An axe like this was hafted and weilded as a tomahawk, although more mundance utilitarian examples also exist. The wooden pole was curved near the upper extremity so that the socketed axe was affixed at an acute angle to the handle.
The axe was only one of the weapons used by the Dian, along with dagger-axes, spears, spiked bronze clubs, swords/daggers and {typically light} crossbows.
Explanation of pictures:
1)Dian axe showing fragmented area of socket (after cleaning)

2)Close up of fragmented area after cleaning of filler material
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3)Detail of decorative band (intact side of socket)
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4)Fragment from socket with diameter of 1cm.
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The inside of the axe socket is the upward face. The thin edge of the bronze fragment {cross-section} shows visible signs of internal corrosion.
The red colour may suggest copper oxide corosion/cuprite.

Very nice Kenneth. Thanks for sharing !
Where is that piece today ? Does it belong to your personal collection ?

Hi Liu,
It is in my collection, presently in a plastic box with silica gel (a dessicant) inside a wooden box with various other bronzes and a few jades.
I didnt take pictures of the Kunming museum examples of these axes, I spent quite a while talking with the a curator untill the museum closed (since we arrived in the afternoon) and I regret that I didn't photograph some of the pieces in particular. There was a sword of a Dian king, some crossbow mechanisms, pole finials and these axes that most interested me. I took notes about those, and took many pictures of the larger Yunnan museum collection anyway.

Melanie Roy, a CHF member and proffesional authenticator of artefacts posted this on another forum:


Hi Melanie,
The damage does not look truly recent based on my impression. The interior 'cuprite' appearance below the surface has been exposed on the image which shows the fracture close-up. This means a small chip popped off at these points, but otherwise this is just a shallow recess on the surface. In the absense of any mineral formations comparible to that on any of the other pittings elsehwhere and incast recesses then it appears this 'popped off' surface is showing an interior that was already corroded by a different process and has a different appearance to other corrosion. Another suggestion is that the edge of the socket wall does not display this feature which implies a different corrosion mechanism affected the formation as shown in the cross-sectioned fragment (being interior).
I feel that the damage is not 'recent' but occured at a time when there was already some internal corrosion, therefore the difference with other exposed surface sections. It may have then corroded further, but the stratigraphy of the 'red' cross-section is from sub-surface action.
A collapse of a tomb chamber or simply pressure on increasingly less-dense corroded bronze are 2 possible mechanisms. I am just glad to see the corrosion is directly comparible to cross-sectioned coins from published studies on this annex-list files, the red band/stratigraphy being quite similar and in that case they were cut just before the study commenced.

About the decoration, a friend sent me this (this is how I ended up with a piece I was personally unsure of) and he wrote a letter explaining the detail.
It is accurately called curvilinear art, since this broad term incorporates anything from Maori to Celtic designs. The actual explanation here was much more sensible than most, since the images are only slightly stylised (compared to so-called 'thunder patterns' on bronze). There are similarities to the contemporary late-East Zhou & Han art called 'cloud patterns' which are a cross between the Dian cloud & water bands here. The Dian water bands however represent more wave-forms rather than longer meandering Huaxia swirls. A lake the size of Lake Dian is large enough to have wave action for them to have observed.
The earth band also bears a relation to cultivation, and the grid-depiction of farmland on early Chinese pictograms. Even today the rural sections are patterns by rectangular rice paddies. I haven't spoken to this friend in a long time, but when I do I will try to ask him for how he came to hear this interpretation. Once he told me this, it seems to be able to be simply observed. It 'fits' my impression of the image, and the tribal interest in the natural world is one reason the motif was so popular