Analysis of patterns of breakage and xeroradiographs have shown that ‘wheelmarks’ provide an incomplete and potentially misleading diagnostic for forming methods. The location and distribution of such marks over the entire vessel is crucial. Patterns of breakage reveal the characteristic patterns of weakness in the vessel fabric left by each type of forming method. Examination of both the overall patterns and surfaces of breaks in relation to the vessel profile aids reconstruction of the original forming process. Selective xeroradiography aid this interpretation. Despite the ubiquity and extent of ‘wheelmarks’ on Godin III painted buff ware vessels (bowls and closed shapes), patterns of breakage and xeroradiography demonstrate limited but persistent use of true throwing of small vessels on a potter's wheel (western Iran, 2600-1400 B.C.). All others were built using combinations of hand-forming methods and finished on a tournette.

The Australian excavations at Pella in Jordan under the guidance of Professor Basil Hennessy (Sydney University, Australia) have over the past 13 years demonstrated the current range of methodologies used in pottery studies in the Levant. One feature of the Australian field team has been the continuing inclusion of this writer from the Archaeology Research Unit, Victoria College, Melbourne (ARU) as a ceramic technologist/potter.

The ARU at Victoria College, which operates together with a practical pottery workshop and an Advanced Ceramic Mlaterials Development Unit, uses a multidisciplinary team approach to look at excavated ancient pottery not primarily as archaeological artefacts but as pottery.

Within the ARU Dr Ralph Segnit handles the mineralogy, Dr John Hamilton the geology, while Robert Hughan, to whom I am indebted for the testing reported here, handles the ceramic chemistry and fracture mechanics aspects. My role as both a ceramic technologist involved in field archaeology and as a trained potter, is to participate in generating the questions which will form the focus of the team's investigations.

The river valley clays used for prehistoric pottery throughout much of Eastern North America require a nonplastic additive, or temper, to improve their workability and reduce drying shrinkage. During the Late Prehistoric (roughly after 900 AD) crushed shell was added as temper along most of the river valleys of the Midwest and along portions of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

The paper discusses the use of a small assemblage of potsherds as evidence of fluvial erosion and indicators of microstratigraphical and geomorphological processes. The potsherds, sandwiched between 2 alluvial deposits, provide dating criteria for the two stratigraphic units, very important for understanding the geomorphology of the whole region. By integrating evidence of negative interfaces on potsherds by fluvial erosion and sedimentological evidence, it is possible to reconstruct the local stratigraphic formation processes. Furthermore, the paper discusses some theoretical implications of this case study for stratigraphic analysis. Negative interfaces produced by erosion on sediments and ceramics are considered in the same analytical framework; in both cases, they represent cumulative units preserving the record of complex stratigraphic processes. Far from being simple limits marking gaps in sedimentary deposition, erosive interfaces are very particular types of strata to be recorded and studied with geoarchaeological methods and with the same detail of traditional sedimentary units.

In many cases objects lacking specific provenience are deemed inappropriate for archaeological or art historical studies. The application of analytical techniques such as thermoluminescence or carbon-14 dating have been used in conjunction with stylistic information to strengthen arguments for provenience. In the case of late-Formative figurines from West Mexico, careful study of the dark patina using morphological and chemical criteria provides a means of assessing provenience of the figurine. Comparison of modern patinas to provenienced patinas has been carried out at several levels -- visual/stylistic, morphological and chemical.

The treatment of archaeological ceramics, whether on site or in the laboratory, can be effectively carried out with the use of one synthetic material, Acryloid B-72. This acrylic copolymer provides excellent properties for the strengthening or consolidation of weak and friable ceramics, and also makes an excellent adhesive. The strength and durability of B-72 make it a suitable adhesive for a broad range of ceramics, from low-fired earthenwares to china and porcelain.

Acryloid B-72 is easily prepared on site, and for most applications can be dissolved in acetone. Various concentrations are recommended and application can be modified to suit local conditions and needs. Flaking and fragile fragments can be consolidated in situ (if dry) and lifted for individual attention in the laboratory. Soluble salts may be extracted from consolidated ceramics by soaking or using poultices.

The well-known stability and reversibility of Acryloid B-72 allow for easy retreatment, or subsequent repair of additional fragments.

Chemical characterization of Roman glass vessels, enamels and tesserae has revealed compositional relationships between enamels and tesserae including the use of high magnesia red and orange glass, normally considered to have gone out of use hundreds of years earlier. The conservative use of glass recipes over a 300 year period is reflected in the compositions; the results of mass-production versus more restricted production are discussed.

In 1891 and 1892 Sir Flinders Petrie excavated glass in various stages of processing from the palace dumps at the fourteenth century B.C. site of Tell el-Amarna, a city built by artisans practicing the highest quality possible in their crafts in order to adorn the new capitol of Tutankhaman and thereby legitimize his rule(1). In order to learn more about the making and working of this glass, we analyzed samples in several stages of processing for composition, processing temperature, viscosity, extent of crystal growth and microscopic evidence of forming methods. Our findings accord with microscopic evidence from complete vessels, an unpublished manuscript on glass finds by the excavator, Sir Flinders Petrie(2) and previous work of the British glass technologist, W.E.S. Turner(3).

Microscopy and elemental analysis of ore, slag, ceramic and ash from a major metallurgical site have allowed insights into the ancient processes. Constraints have been placed on raw materials and smelting conditions, and aspects of technological change and development have been recognised.

Since at least the sixteenth century, the ‘wootz’ ultra-high carbon white cast-iron ingot was produced in India by melting or carburising iron in a crucible. This ingot was forged into sword blades of so-called ‘Damascus’ steel. The charged crucible was fired in a long (24 hour) single cycle at high temperature (1150-1250°C) in a strongly reducing atmosphere. Raw materials for the refractory vessel are clay and ‘coked’ rice husks. At high temperatures, two phases reinforce the glassy matrix - cristobalite relics of rice husks and a network of mullite crystals. This paper characterizes the microstructure and chemistry of the mullite network in the glassy matrix by means of a combination of techniques: optical microscopy, XRD, SEM, TEM with EDS, and HREM.

Archaeological materials recovered from excavations of settlements and cemeteries of prehistoric cultures in the Middle Danube basin offer new evidence for the production of metals by the beginning of the Eneolithic (late neolithic) period. The identification of malachite, azurite and galena indicates that these minerals were extracted from the upland ore-bearing zones and transported to the lowland, alluvial river valleys for processing and smelting at settlement sites. For the first time metallurgical slags, found in association with malachite ores, crucibles, and copper/bronze artifacts, suggest that copper was smelted as early as the fifth millennium BC. Detailed analyses of these slags have identified a unique find of a tinbearing copper slag, raising the question of bronze production during the fifth millennium BC.

Art historical research related to Himalayan copper-based sculpture has concentrated on its religious, historical, and cultural context; questions of style, regional provenance, and chronology have also been important issues. The relationship of art production to economic considerations, and the relative role of economics versus aesthetics in the choice of casting and decorating alternatives, have received little attention. Although these are indeed difficult problems to address, they are nevertheless interesting ones that deserve some attempts at analysis.

Platinum and platinum-gold metallurgy was fully developed by smiths in the Esmeraldas-Tumaco Pacific coast area of present day Ecuador and Colombia long before the arrival of Europeans in South America and centuries before platinum metallurgy became practicable in the Western world. Using gold to sinter together nuggets of native placer platinum, then alternately working and annealing the resultant solid, these South American smiths produced hard, fairly homogeneous platinum-gold alloys of a range of colors for fabrication into items of adornment, and small tools, such as needles, tweezers, awls, and fishhooks.

The microstructures and compositions of sintered Pt-Au objects from La Tolita, Ecuador, and of experimentally simulated Pt-Au alloy samples were analyzed using new electron microprobe microanalysis (EPMA) techniques and data from the Pt-Au phase diagram in an effort to determine the fabrication temperatures used by Pre-Hispanic South American smiths. A comparison of EPMA results from the simulated materials with the corresponding results from the La Tolita Pt-Au objects suggests that the Pt-Au objects were never heated as high as 1100°C and probably never contained a liquid phase. As illustrated by this comparison, the qualitative and quantitative information provided by these new digital acquisition and display techniques far exceeds what conventional line scan and x-ray dot maps could provide.

Two silver plates in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum were studied by non-destructive x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, xradiography, optical metallography, electron microprobe analysis and lead isotopic composition. One plate depicts a scene of philosophical discourse (the ‘Philosopher plate’) and the other an aged fisherman with his catch (the ‘Fisherman plate’). Both plates have designs on the fronts made not by repousse but by a combination of working and annealing followed by carving to shape. Technical and analytical results are described which support the attribution of a date in the early centuries AD. There are several differences between the two plates, such as the way in which the footring has been made and attached. Both, however, have thick corrosion crusts and have suffered intergranular corrosion. Determination of trace elements, such as zinc and gold, together with the method of manufacture suggests that both plates are ancient. Lead isotopic data for the two plates is different, with the Philosopher plate showing a close relationship to other Byzantine objects, even though a Renaissance date had been suggested.

The history and methodology of Japanese swordmaking are reviewed with particular reference to materials and processes. In order to gain a better understanding of the structure/property relationships in Japanese swords, a 16th century katana was analyzed metallographically and by attaching strain gages and cutting to relieve the residual stresses in the blade. The results indicate that the curve in the blade can be attributed to the volumetric expansion of the untempered martensite on the cutting edge, which also causes the edge to be in a state of residual compression. The residual compressive stresses are one of the key elements of the Japanese sword which give it superior toughness and cutting ability.

Practitioners of archaeological and historical metallurgy have begun to identify their discipline by a new term: “archaeometallurgy.” Tracing the roots of this discipline shows that up to about 1980 the focus of study was on the technical examination of metal objects and determining site plans of metallurgical installations. Essentially it was a study of ancient metals of interest to historians of art or of technology. The focus then shifted to other materials and their archaeological contexts, processing byproducts such as slag, matte, furnace linings and furnace bottoms, crucibles, molds, cupels and tuyeres which are often more abundant on sites than metal. Thus the field of study has been enlarged beyond metallurgy to an interdisciplinary undertaking of materials science, archaeology, and material culture. Simultaneously with this shift in focus came the application of newly-developed instrumentation which supported a parallel shift in methodology from one emphasizing chemical analysis and microstructure to one of materials charactexrization, emphasising properties and performance.

The lost wax casting technique is almost impossible to use if the finished object must be of a specified weight or must utilize all of a given batch of metal. This basic fact helps to explain why Old World ancient gold jewelry, particularly of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine origin, is almost always-hand wrought rather than cast. Similar considerations relate to the manufacture of copper-alloy weights or other objects which appear to be of pre-determined weight.

The early Roman cemetery discovered during the construction of London's third airport at Stansted contains the richest Roman burials discovered in Britain this century. The grave goods included a quantity of fine metalwork which forms te subject of this paper. The construction, alloys and finish of the pieces are described and discussed. Tin-plating and niello inlays are identified and described as is the analysis of corroded lead-tin solders and pewter. The manufacture of a high-tin bronze mirror is also discussed.

Phosphorus is found to be a common impurity in many of the iron tools and weapons produced during the pre-Roman and Roman Iron Ages of Britain (600 BC - 300 AD). The effects of this impurity on the properties and performance of antiquarian materials is not well understood, however. This paper presents the initial findings of an in-depth study of the distribution, chemistry, and effects of phosphorus in Romano-British ironwork. For this purpose, two Romano-British iron artifacts from the site of Ircheoter, Northamptonshire, were examined using powerful techniques for archeological materials analysis that include electron microprobe, secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with energydispersive x-ray spectroscopy capabilities (EDXS), and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). It was found that phosphorous was indeed present in the artifacts. The phosphorus atoms were predominantly segregated at grain boundaries and thus should have led to a lowering of grain boundary cohesion and a degradation in the performance of the tools.

Seven ternary mixtures of gold(80-95%)-silver(4-15%)-copper(1-15%) were prepared as standards for the determination of elemental composition by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS). Two geometric forms (flat and oblate) of the standards were prepared for comparison to the analyses of historic gold objects. Surface analyses were performed. Polished sections of the standards were also analysed Comparison between two methods for collecting EDS data is reported. The analyses are discussed in terms of developing a generalized methodology for estimating elemental composition of museum artifacts.