青铜器皿

很多在庆典上使用的刻有铭文的青铜器皿都源于商朝。

A number of ceremonial bronze vessels with inscriptions date from the Shang period ；

铸造这件大型的青铜器皿使用金属原料1000多公斤，需要七八十名工匠操作完成。

The casting of this huge bronze vessel used over l , 000 kilograms of metal and needed 70 t0 80 crafts-men to work on it .

人们不再仅仅将铭文刻在龟甲兽骨上，而是将铭文刻在数以千计的青铜器皿上，这些铭文记录了那时的社会生活。

People not only engraved inscriptions on oracle bones , but also engraved epigraphs on thousands of bronze utensils , recording the social life of that time .

更重要的是，商朝的青铜器皿制造空前繁荣。青铜器的历史在中国始于公元前3000年，在公元前13世纪左右达到顶峰。

More important , the Shang Dynasty thrived in the manufacture of bronze vessels.Bronze culture has appeared in China before 3000 BC and achieved its zenith around the 13th century B.C.