Abstract:Bronze artifacts unearthed from Liujiawa site, Chengcheng County, Shaanxi Province are of great value for studying the history of the state of Rui in the early Spring and Autumn Period. However, due to the long-term corrosion of the bronzes, some of the information contained in the artifacts may be lost. A comprehensive research on the causes of corrosion of Liujiawa bronzes was conducted in order to investigate the production techniques used and status of preservation and stability of Liujiawa bronzes, to reveal the characteristics of soil corrosion of bronzes unearthed in the Loess Plateau of eastern Guanzhong Region, and to provide a reference for the conservation and restoration of bronzes. The phases and structures of the corrosion products of six bronzes excavated from Liujiawa site were analyzed using metallographic microscopy, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectrometry. The results show that the corrosion products of bronzes are mainly cuprite, malachite and cerussite, but no copper trihydroxychloride. The corrosion structure of Liujiawa bronzes has a four-layered structure including an altered layer, a non-metallic layer under the original surface, (the original interface), an in-situ deposition layer on the original surface and a diffusional deposition layer. The ratio of Cu/Sn in the non-metallic layer under the original interface is lower than that of the sound metal, which indicates that the copper in the matrix has migrated outward while cassiterite is formed and deposited in-situ after corrosion. The ratio of Cu/Sn outside the original interface is significantly higher than that of the non-metallic layer under the original interface, indicating that the migrating copper ions were deposited under the burial environment. The pH values, redox potentials and ion chromatograms of the soil samples attached to the bronzes were analyzed. The results show that the burial environment was alkaline and oxidized with a low concentration of Cl-, which account for the corrosion state of the bronzes. Therefore, the corrosion products of the bronzes could be preserved to reflect their historical, technical and artistic value. Additionally, attention should be paid to the temperature and humidity during later preservation, due to the fact that some bronzes unearthed from similar burial environments in Shaanxi have suffered from the bronze disease according to the poor preservation conditions. Compared with the previous research on the corrosion of bronzes unearthed in Shaanxi, we put forward the following conclusions:1) due to the continuous occurrence of local corrosion inside the bronzes, the corrosion property of each reaction zone is constantly changing, so the reaction environment inside the bronzes is not equivalent to the soil burial environment and is weakly acidic. On this basis, through the calculation of the solubility of corrosion products under different pH conditions, it is determined that copper and lead exist in the ionic state and migrate under weak acid corrosion conditions inside the metal, whereas cassiterite may only be dissolved under strong acidic conditions; 2) based on the analysis of the tin contents in the corrosion layer, we believe that the relatively pure cuprite layer on the surface of some bronzes is formed by the weak migration of cuprous ions and in-situ deposition outside the original interface of the bronze. The original surface of the bronzes is located between non-metallic layer and the cuprite layer. The corrosion structure of the bronzes from Liujiawa site represents the corrosion characteristics in alkaline and low-chlorine burial environment, which is significant in revealing the relationship between corrosion and environment. The differences in the migration and deposition process of bronzes after metal oxidation to ions in different burial environments can provide a reference for different corrosion structures of bronzes unearthed from different regions in China.