Since the thirties of this century, the source of the great amounts of copper
material in
Shang-Zhou Periods has remained
an unsettled problem puzzling many scholars.The present article, which is based on the early sources of copper recorded in ancient documents, the distribution of copper recourses revealed by modern geological prospecting,and the early coppermining sites excavated and surveyed, has proved, through modern detecting means such as lead-isotopic method, that the copper
material deposits in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtse River and the Zhongtiao Mountain area and the regions to its west were the main sources of the copper materials in the
Shang-Zhou Period. During the long period of 2500 years from the late Neolithic Age through the three dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou,a complete system of high-leveled and unique-featured copper-mining and smelting technologies in the pre-Qin period had gradually come into being.It constituted the material and technical basis for the Shang-Zhou bronze civilization. The formation and development of various cultural regions of the Bronze Age in ancient China were closely related with the conditions of the copper-mining and smelting production and the material supply in the places of production.There were three copper metropolises in the Shang-Zhou Period, two of which were situated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtse River. This fact indicates that those regions occupied a decisive position. Accordingly, it should be properly evaluated what role the ancient Yue Nationality and South China had played in the formation of ancient Chinese civilization.The old view of the one-way cultural dissemination mode with the Central Plains as the only center should be replaced by the new view of two-way or multi-way convection mode.