Abstract
This paper presents a recent survey on distilling zinc production at Huangjinzhen site dating to the 18th Century found in Luocheng County, northern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Southern China. Fieldwork was conducted in northern Guangxi Region in spring 2005 and 2010. The historical site is distributed in an area of about 1.5 km2 in the vicinity of the town of Huangjinzhen. More than 10 rectangular/Macaolu furnaces and several “bowl-shaped” furnaces and a large number of remains such as retorts, smelting slag, coal ashes, and a patch of zinc metal have been found at the site during investigations. And a lot of slag and broken fragments of retorts etc. were collected. Historical literary sources reveal that the Luocheng County started smelting zinc no later than the Qing dynasty. The typology of the rectangular furnaces indicates a shared tradition with zinc smelting finds in southwestern China.
