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Mineralogical applications of the analytical SEM in archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

I. C. Freestone  and
A. P. Middleton
I. C. Freestone
Affiliation:
British Museum Research Laboratory, London WC1B 3DG
A. P. Middleton
Affiliation:
British Museum Research Laboratory, London WC1B 3DG
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Abstract

The modern analytical SEM, which can provide high-quality imaging facilities together with quantitative elemental analysis using an energy-dispersive spectrometer, is finding wide application in the investigation of archaeological problems. Many of these investigations involve the study of silicate and carbonate-based artefacts which may be relatively unmodified from their original geological parent raw materials so that mineralogically based interpretations are often appropriate. In this paper we present a series of examples illustrating the role of the analytical SEM in the mineralogical investigation of archaeological problems, including the characterization and provenancing of geological raw materials, the elucidation of the processes used to transform those raw materials into useful objects and the recognition and characterization of changes which archaeological artefacts may have undergone during burial or during storage.

Keywords

analytical scanning electron microscopearchaeology.
Type
Electron Microscopy in Mineralogy and Petrology
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 51 , Issue 359 , March 1987 , pp. 21 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1987

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