The ancient city Linzi in Shandong Province was the capital of the Qi State in the Zhou Dynasty, the seat of the Qi and Linzi prefectures in the Qin-Han period, and the capital of the Qi Princedom of the Han Dynasty. In the spring of 2003, a special archaeological survey was carried out to explore mirror-casting workshops of the Han period in the city. The work resulted in the collection of 14 mirror-casting pottery molds and some related objects from the southeast of Shifotang Village and the west of Sujiamiao Village, thus the two localities can be determined to have been Han period mirror-casting workshops. Among the molds are those with herd design or connected arcs pattern, which are the first archaeological finds of this type and have high value to the study into the mirror-casting technology of the Han period. The discovery shows that the city of Linzi in the Han Dynasty was an important mirror-casting center, and that mirror casting was a part of the technology of multifunction foundries.
