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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;AnYangMan, post: 3323497, member: 87271&quot;]Some additional photos:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://inews.gtimg.com/newsapp_bt/0/7406162603/1000" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>(The tubular structure is a ventilation-shaft for one of the furnaces)</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://pic8.dwnews.net/20190117/b9d5d5237a48d53e7135be14eddeeba1_w.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://pic3.dwnews.net/20190117/67205c4ae0b6e03b9e45b2b8190453eb_w.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://inews.gtimg.com/newsapp_bt/0/7406162606/1000" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://inews.gtimg.com/newsapp_bt/0/7406162613/1000" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/201901/W020190118594588721948.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>While certainly a spectacular find, up until now nothing too shocking has come from the site. Some insanely high-quality moulds though, which were inscribed with their exact date, right up until the day of casting! Moulds from this period however are far from rare and modern archaeology has been able to very precisely reconstruct the different ways of casting and relating the archaeological record to these different production methods (stack-casting vs. upright moulds, etc.)</p><p><br /></p><p>One fascinating thing that did pop up is the mould below. While in itself not an incredibly special mould, it is the name in the signature (后钟官工褒造十一) that intrigues us. In it, the name 褒 <i>Bao</i>, the craftsman responsible for the production of the mould, is given, followed by the numeral for 11. In 1976, several 1000 kilometres from this mint, a similar mould was excavated, also carrying the signature of 褒 <i>Bao! </i>Preliminary speculations have interpreted this in different manners; either travelling craftsmen or a centralized production of mother-moulds, as opposed to locally as initially thought. While the latter would seem much more probable in my opinion, that would mean a far higher degree of mint centralization than originally attributed to this period. The western equivalent would be all dies for LRB’s being produced in Rome and subsequently distributed to the mints across the empire, thousands of kilometres apart!</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://inews.gtimg.com/newsapp_bt/0/7406162605/1000" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Personally, I am hoping this site might shed some light on the internal division in the mint, both spatial and administrative, but since only a fraction of the site has been excavated up until now, that might take a while. Awesome nonetheless![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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