The Science and Archaeology of Materials: An Investigation of Inorganic Materials

by Henderson,Julian

• ISBN13: 9780415199339
• ISBN10: 0415199336
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-22
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Science and Archaeology of Materialsis set to become the definitive work in archaeology of material. Henderson's highly illustrated work is an accessible and fascinating textbook which will be essential reading for all practical archaeologists. With clear sections on a wide range of materials including ceramics, glass, metals and stone, this work examines the very foundations of archaeological study. The concise and informative introduction provides a general over view as well as a brief insight into the history of this type of research.

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables	xi
Preface	xv
Acknowledgements	xvii
Introduction	1	(7)
Techniques Of Scientific Analysis	8	(16)
Introduction	8	(1)
Destructive techniques	9	(5)
Non-destructive and micro-destructive techniques	14	(10)
Glass	24	(85)
Glass as a material	24	(1)
The raw materials of ancient glass production	25	(13)
The alkalis	25	(1)
Silica sources	26	(1)
The use of lead	27	(1)
Calcium	28	(1)
Glass coloration	29	(1)
Cobalt blue glass	30	(2)
Translucent turquoise blue and red glasses; opaque red glass	32	(2)
Iron-green and purple glasses	34	(1)
Opaque white, turquoise and yellow glasses	35	(3)
Other opacifiers	38	(1)
Glass decolorisers	38	(1)
Glass-making/fritting	38	(1)
Glass furnaces	39	(8)
Interpreting the evidence	39	(1)
The earliest furnaces	40	(2)
Roman furnaces	42	(2)
Early medieval, Islamic and other `southern' glass furnaces	44	(1)
`Northern' and later types of glass furnaces	45	(2)
Glass-working	47	(1)
The chemical compositions of ancient glasses	48	(3)
The working properties of soda-lime-silica glass	51	(1)
Ritual aspects	52	(1)
The origins of glass and its early production in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia	52	(8)
Introduction	52	(1)
The origins of glass: fuel-ash slags, glazed stones and faience	53	(1)
Chemical characteristics of early glass in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia	54	(5)
The archaeological inference	59	(1)
Roman glass production: refined specialisation or mass-production	60	(7)
Introduction	60	(1)
Specialised technology of the Portland vase and Lycurgus cup	61	(3)
Mass-produced greenish Roman glass	64	(2)
Scientific investigations	66	(1)
Early medieval glass in Europe: the continuation of a Roman tradition?	67	(9)
Introduction	67	(4)
Glass production at Ribe, Jutland	71	(1)
Scientific investigations	72	(3)
The archaeological inference	75	(1)
The rise of the `Abbasids and glass production in early Islamic Syria	76	(14)
Introduction	76	(1)
Glass production at al-Raqqa on the Euphrates: the industrial context	77	(1)
The glass tell, Tell Zujaj	77	(1)
The late workshop phase	78	(1)
The glass workshop	78	(3)
Dating of the site	81	(1)
Other evidence for the glass industry	82	(1)
Scientific investigations of the glass and allied materials	83	(5)
Scientific analysis of the frit	88	(2)
Summary	90	(1)
Seventeenth-century glass production in Europe	90	(19)
Introduction	90	(1)
The production and use of sixteenth-seventeenth-century glass goblets and beakers in Britain	90	(2)
The glass vessel forms	92	(1)
Chemical investigations	93	(2)
Chemical composition and vessel form	95	(2)
The importance of producing colourless glass	97	(1)
Glass-house compositions?	97	(1)
Summary of scientific investigations	97	(1)
Correlations of vessel form, economic value and chemical compositions	98	(1)
Summary	99	(10)
Ceramics	109	(99)
Introduction	109	(1)
The raw materials of pottery production	110	(5)
Clays and their origins	110	(1)
The formation of clays from the earth's crust	110	(2)
The definition of clays	112	(3)
Pottery manufacture	115	(27)
The preparation of clays for potting	115	(1)
Plasticity and its effect on shaping the pot	115	(3)
Shaping the pot	118	(4)
Decorating the pot	122	(3)
Glazes: their technology, chemical composition, colouring;the use of pigments	125	(1)
The classification of ancient glaze chemical compositions	125	(1)
Glaze colorants and the use of pigments	126	(1)
Clay drying	127	(2)
The texture of clay and clay inclusions	129	(1)
Additions to clays (temper) and cultural choice	129	(1)
The conditions of firing	130	(2)
What happens when clay is fired?	132	(3)
Types of firing and the use of kilns	135	(1)
`Open' firing	135	(1)
Pottery kilns	136	(5)
The fuels used	141	(1)
The changing modes of Iron Age pottery production in Britain	142	(12)
The socio-economic context	142	(2)
Ceramic production in southern Britain during the late Iron Age	144	(1)
Introduction of the potters wheel and its effect on local production	145	(2)
Salt briquetage production and distribution	147	(7)
Conclusions	154	(1)
The production and distribution of early medieval pottery in Britain	154	(10)
Introduction	154	(2)
The study of Anglo-Saxon and later pottery production in the Thames valley	156	(1)
Early Saxon pottery (fifth--seventh centuries)	156	(2)
Other studies of early--middle Saxon `plain' wares	158	(1)
Mid-Saxon pottery (seventh--ninth centuries) in the Thames valley	159	(3)
Late Saxon and early medieval pottery (ninth--eleventh centuries) and early towns	162	(2)
Conclusions	164	(1)
The manufacture of celadons	164	(17)
Oriental ceramic bodies: proto-porcelains, porcelains and stonewares, including celadons	164	(2)
Green glazed wares and the development of glaze colour in celadons	166	(2)
The archaeological evidence for celadon production at Yaozhou	168	(8)
Evidence of celadon production organisation from mould inscriptions	176	(1)
Scientific investigation of Yaozhou technology	177	(1)
The glazes	177	(2)
The pottery bodies	179	(1)
The moulds	180	(1)
The saggers	180	(1)
Analysis of Yaozhou raw materials	180	(1)
Iznik: Ottoman court ceramics and the development of `fritware'	181	(27)
Introduction	181	(1)
The possible origins and the characteristics of stonepaste/fritware and maiolica/`faience' technology	181	(1)
Iznik	182	(1)
The research questions	183	(1)
Evidence for the production of Iznik and other `fritware'	184	(2)
Historical evidence for the production of Iznik	186	(1)
The date and range of decorative types	187	(2)
The technology of typical Iznik ceramic bodies examined	189	(5)
Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century glaze technology and the development of colours	194	(1)
Did local Miletus ware, imported Chinese porcelain, Masters of Tabriz tiles and pottery, and Abraham of Kutahya ware influence the development of Iznik?	195	(4)
Production and the `art of the state'	199	(1)
Conclusions	200	(8)
Metals	208	(89)
Metals as materials	208	(2)
The range of metals used and their ores (copper, iron, tin, zinc, lead, gold, silver, bronze and brass)	210	(4)
Locating and mining ores	214	(6)
Ore sorting	220	(1)
The heat-treatment of metals: the process of smelting	220	(4)
The non-slagging process	222	(1)
The slagging process	223	(1)
The evidence of furnaces, their construction and use	224	(8)
Air supply	228	(1)
Fuel supply and its effect on the environment	229	(2)
Pollution	231	(1)
The heat-treatment of metals: refining and purification	232	(9)
The matte smelting process (for copper)	232	(1)
Iron alloys (and steel `working')	232	(2)
Zinc	234	(3)
Lead	237	(1)
Gold	237	(1)
Cupellation of lead-silver ores	238	(1)
Brass	239	(1)
Other alloys of copper - with arsenic, antimony and nickel	240	(1)
Mercury	240	(1)
Early copper production in Wadi Feinan, Jordan	241	(7)
Introduction	241	(1)
The ore deposits	241	(2)
Evidence for early ore exploitation and metallurgical activity in Palestine	243	(2)
The characteristics of metallurgical activity at Wadi Feinan	245	(3)
Scientific studies of copper and bronze in Europe - the potential for characterisation	248	(14)
Introduction	248	(3)
The role of lead isotope analysis	251	(1)
Some studies of Mediterranean metalwork	252	(1)
The chemical analysis and lead isotope analysis of Bronze Age metalwork found in Britain	253	(1)
Introduction	253	(1)
Chemical compositions of British Bronze Age metalwork	254	(4)
The relationship of chemical compositions to lead isotope determinations	258	(4)
Early copper and copper alloy production in Thailand	262	(8)
Introduction	262	(2)
North-east Thailand: Ban Na Di and Ban Chiang	264	(1)
Scientific analysis of the metal	264	(1)
The social significance of bronze metallurgy at Ban Na Di	265	(1)
Ban Chiang	265	(1)
The Phu Wiang region	265	(2)
North-east Thailand in the first millennium BC: evidence from Phu Lon	267	(1)
The mining evidence	267	(1)
The Pottery flat ore-dresing and metal casting area	267	(1)
Social distinctions and the degree of industrial specialisation in north-east Thailand	268	(1)
Central Thailand: evidence from Non Pa Wai and Nil Kham Haeng of the Ban Chiang cultural tradition	268	(2)
Nil Kham Haeng	270	(1)
The degree of specialisation in central Thailand	270	(1)
Technological innovation and the case of iron	270	(3)
Technological innovation	270	(1)
Innovation and iron	271	(2)
The production of iron in Iron Age Britain	273	(9)
Iron Age iron	273	(1)
Prehistoric iron production in north-west Wales	274	(1)
Bryn y Castell	274	(2)
Crawcwellt West	276	(2)
The experimental reconstruction of iron-smelting	278	(1)
An iron-smelting experiment based on excavated evidence	279	(1)
Scientific study of iron-working: the production of a currency bar	279	(2)
Technological implications	281	(1)
The chemical characterisation of precious metals?	282	(15)
Introduction	282	(1)
Compositional links between the New World and Europe through the use of gold and silver	283	(1)
The silver coins	283	(1)
The gold coins	284	(13)
Stone	297	(27)
Introduction	297	(1)
Flint and chert	297	(2)
Flint and chert mining	297	(2)
Sourcing stone	299	(1)
Steatite	300	(1)
Answering archaeological questions through the scientific analysis of flint	301	(4)
Obsidian research: a microcosm of the development of archaeological science	305	(10)
Obsidian use in the Middle East	307	(2)
Obsidian use in southern Europe	309	(6)
The origins and transportation of the bluestones of Stonehenge	315	(2)
Stone axe studies	317	(7)
Archaeological Science And The Way Forward	324	(3)
Index	327