Past civilizations almost always have left us with some of their products. These remains may include the remnants of entire cities with palaces, temples, houses, cemeteries, including written records of the activities of their people as well as artifacts produced and used by these people. Such artifacts are most useful if they are found in the context of their previous use. Unfortunately, that is often not the case. Many archaeological objects appear on the art market or exist in museums or private collections without a reliable provenance.

Radiography is the most useful tool for the examination of objects by non-destructive means. A variety of questions can be answered by radiographic techniques. Some questions are those arising from conservation, e.g., the location, shape and size of restorations, internal flaws, hidden underpaintings and extent of deterioration such as corrosion. similarly, questions in technical and archaeometric studies include those related to methods of fabrication of objects, precise measurement of dimensions, details of internal construction and detection of different materials composing an object. However, not all of these questions can be answered equally well by conventional methods of radiography.

In archaeological studies of ceramic materials, nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods are needed to better understand the nature and evolution of ceramic fabrication techniques [1] and even to authenticate ancient ceramics [2]. The desired data are similar to those sought in modern fine ceramics, especially advanced structural ceramics [3]. X-ray imaging technologies, developed to characterize structural ceramics, were applied to three samples, a modern and two archaeological ceramics, in order to obtain fabrication information. They were imaged using various X-ray image receivers: electrostatic receivers (Xeroradiography Xerox 125 and 175, Xerox Medical Systems, Pasadena CA), photostimulable phosphors (Fuji Photo Film Co., Japan, 1985 Prototype System FCR-101), and high-resolution industrial X-ray film (Kodak, Rochester, N.Y.). Ultrasound and dye penetrants had failed to reveal methods of manufacture in the ancient ceramics because of their highly porous fabric (1).

Neutron-induced autoradiography is a further step in the development of techniques for the examination of paintings that complements x-ray radiography and often yields unique information that cannot be obtained by other means. After exposure to a field of thermal neutrons (<0.3eV), selected elements in the painting form radioactive nuclides that in turn decay at known half-lives with the emission of gamma rays and charged particles. The charged particles, mainly electrons, expose radiographic film that is held in close contact with the painting by a very slight vacuum. Unlike x-ray radiography, which involves detecting x-rays that have passed through the painting to expose a film, autoradiography uses one activation with neutrons followed by sequential film exposures to capture the images of activated elements that have different half-lives. The autoradiographs show the distribution patterns of the pigments in which the elements occur. These pigments may be on the surface and visible in the painting or they may be beneath the surface. Often autoradiography uncovers the preliminary sketch or underpainting preceding the rough blocking in of the subject and the subsequent paint layers that create the final image. X-rays reveal almost exclusively the presence of pigments containing heavy elements such as lead and barium; autoradiography identifies the presence of activated pigments and distinguishes the fine details of paint application as well as changes in composition.

Archaeologists, art historians and art conservators are almost constantly concerned with the questions of where, when and by whom the objects within their care were made. Knowledge of the conditions under which the objects were found may not answer these questions, as the objects may have traveled extensively or have existed for some time before they arrived at sites where they were discovered. Stylistic considerations often can provide answers, but not infallibly, as styles were sometimes copied at locations and at times quite different from those for which they were most characteristic. Compositional analysis can often help provide answers to these questions because traditions in the use of particular materials have often persisted in and accordingly have been characteristic of particular regions, periods and even of particular workshops. For example, the deliberate alloying of copper with tin, arsenic, antimony, lead and/or zinc has varied greatly from region to region and from time to time.

Quantitative scientific determination of the authenticity and age of marble sculpture is an important goal of geo-archaeologists and conservation scientists. Geochemical and petrographic techniques are used here to investigate rock weathering and mineral alterations responsible for the “patina” and alteration layers on marble sculpture. We present oxygen and carbon isotopic, scanning electron microscopic and electron microprobe analyses of both fresh marble and weathering crusts materials from cores taken from Cycladic and Archaic Greek sculptures and from ancient quarries, to evaluate these techniques as indicators of antiquity.

Calcitic marbles exhibit an altered weathering crust of variable thickness, where calcite has been recrystallized and interpenetrated with inclusions of iron oxide, clay minerals, gypsum and other authigenic minerals. The thickness and composition of these crusts varies with soil and water chemistry as well as marble density, texture and age.

Microprobe analyses indicate trace element gradients from fresh to weathered calcite. Carbon and oxygen isotopes can differentiate between insitu alteration and precipitated carbonate. Dolomitic marbles can exhibit calcitic surficial layers formed by dedolomitization, which can be confirmed by isotopic and microprobe analyses.

Analyses of known forgeries, ancient quarry samples and artificially weathered marbles have further documented our criteria and show that the majority of diagnostic geochemical and mineralogical features seen on ancient Greek sculptures cannot be accurately duplicated by artificial means.

The neutron probe is a non-destructive technique for examining materials that is based on prompt neutron/gamma spectroscopy. It can be used either at a nuclear reactor or, with portable neutron sources, in the field or even underwater. Since it is sensitive to a wide range of elements, it can be applied to many problems in materials analysis and conservation. A description of the major features of the neutron probe's operation is presented, along with a case study of chloride deterioration of an historic brick structure at Colonial Williamsburg.

For more than a decade lead isotope analyses have been used in attempts to identify ore sources for silver and lead artifacts from the Aegean region. These regional provenance studies have been used to formulate statements on archaeological issues in the Aegean. Methods of data analysis and presentation used to interpret lead isotope analyses have been borrowed directly from the field of geology, where this technique was developed and originally applied. However, the goals of geologists and those of archaeologists are not the same.

Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) has traditionally been considered a “non-destructive” analysis method because it causes no chemical change to the sample, and the sample can be recovered for further analysis. However, physical changes are generally necessary for the sample to be introduced into the spectrometer: slicing, crushing, dissolving, melting, etc. In an art object or historical artifact, these sampling methods can be considered somewhat “destructive.”

The process of translating copper ore into a finished bronze involved a series of discrete steps (Fig. 1), the products and by-products of which comprise a diversity of materials. The full characterization of these materials, and thereby the reconstruction of how the metalworking artisans of a particular culture went about their craft, requires a variety of analytical tools, each applied with specific interpretive goals in mind. For example, the use of high power optical microscopy (with magnifications ranging 10x to 400x) allows a qualitative description of ore and slag petrography [1], and the definition of individual phases in metal microstructure (see, for example, refs. [2,3]); the use of high temperature cell (HTC) microscopy, offers a novel means of studying a slag's thermodynamic properties [4]; and so on.

The application of modern methods and strategies of materials science has allowed study of the technology of ancient ceramics to enter a new era. Ceramics include refractories, plasters and cements, some pigments, glasses, pottery, porcelain, bricks, tiles and enamels. Some of the questions necessary to understand and interpret ancient ceramics are given below.

The use of the technology of manufacture of a class of artifacts as data to address questions of culture process {social evolution} is fraught with pitfalls. This is especially true with ceramic technology. The study of this type of artifact begins with a basic circularity for most prehistoric periods in most areas of the world. Many prehistoric chronologies are based on the most abundant and durable artifact, ceramics. Periods or phases are, to a large extent, defined by similarities in form, style, and production methods of these ceramics. Therefore using more refined assessments of the technology of production to assess changes occurring between periods or phases and to infer cultural change is merely reaffirming the cornequences, and reinforcing an image of abrupt step wise progression. This image is of little help in understanding the inner causes and dynamics of social or technological evolution. The use of more refined ceramic technological data to test the validity of a chronology based on ceramic data must be used with great caution.

Specialised ceramics from Gaul were imported into late Iron Age Britain, and their forms copied in native techniques. Roman technology was introduced after the Conquest, and involved changes in paste preparation, surface coating and firing techniques that allowed increases in the scale, standardisation and quality of the production.

The ceramic specimens examined in this study were taken from roof tiles of the Hellenistic period found in Pella, northern Greece. They represent five chronologically successive tilings of two buildings. Neutron activation analysis results showed that a different clay was used for the construction of each roof. Results of technological analysis indicate a consistency in the manufacture of the tiles, except for the first tiling which seems to be technologically different and more advanced.

For over 50 years Maya Blue has been an unsolved problem in the manufacture of ancient pigments. It can be reproduced with several procedures using palygorskite, indigo and heat; however we do not know how the Mayans made this pigment. Interpretation of ethnohistoric data allows us to deduce that Prehispanic, and even Spanish Colonial, procedures for manufacturing indigo may produce Maya blue if clay is added during the process.

We present ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence to support this hypothesis and following the proposed procedures, Maya Blue is reproduced in the laboratory. Microscopic examination and chemical microscopy are applied to the synthetic Maya Blue to characterize and compare it with original Mayan samples.

Ancient Chinese ceramics is usually related or equated with the terms pottery and porcelain. In fact the manufacture of porcelain in ancient China is one of the most important chapters in the history of ceramics. Porcelain products were developed gradually from stoneware over a time span of nearly a thousand years. The typical white and translucent porcelain that we know as China was probably first made in the ninth century.

This paper describes methods which have been used for the retrospective estimation of the firing temperatures of ancient ceramics, ranked by the reviewers in order of applicability from those considered least effective to the most successful. The techniques discussed include those that correlate color, physical, elastic and electronic properties, thermoluminescence sensitivity, morphology, mineralogy, and thermal behavior with temperature.

This paper discusses the largest bank of compositional data yet assembled for Early Christian (6th- 10th century AD) Irish glass. The material studied was transparent and opaque and was analysed using EPMA and SEM. The data for transparent glass offers the possibility of assessing the extent to which the glass was recycled. The crystalline inclusions in opaque glasses including those on glass-making crucibles have been studied using an SEM.

This paper deals with a unique glass bead of probable second millennium BC date from Wilsford, Wiltshire in southern England. The date of the bead is probably Wessex II; c. 1400 – 1200 BC. It was first recognised as being glass [1] in print in 1812, but until recently [2] has been considered as being of stone rather than glass in line with its original description. Here the bead is described together with surface SEM studies, the replication work on glass of similar composition reported and its unusual chemical composition discussed in terms of its durability and comparable Bronze Age glass compositions. This paper is partly the result of a collaborative project involving the author, Margaret Guido, Michael Cable, Justine Bayley and Leo Biek.

The major events that promoted gemstone jewelry production in ancient Rome included: the separation of gold from silver, the expansion of land trade routes to the east, and presentations of treasure during Roman triumphs that popularized eastern jewelry. In this paper a fourth event is studied, namely the development of the sea trade to India and Sri Lanka that made possible the importation of sapphires and diamond technology. Classical references were reviewed, methods of identifying Sri Lankan sapphires were explored, and experimental studies were undertaken to test various bow drills, abrasives, and methods of securing stones and abrasive onto solid surfaces. From these studies it is concluded that (1) opaque dark blue sapphires were imported from central India around the first or second century A.D. and pale blue transparent stones from Sri Lanka by the fourth century A.D., (2) with the importation of sapphires, industrial diamonds and lac technology was also brought to the west, and (3) a wide variety of bow drills were probably employed, however, for hard stones, the horizontal bow driven lathe was probably preferred because of the relative ease with which stones could be worked against it.