Advances in Archaeomaterials最新文献

This study utilises pottery as a proxy to identify patterns of use and consumption, as well as depositional strategies at Agriomernos, a recently discovered cave site on Samos Island (Greece). This discovery challenges our understanding of human–landscape interaction within a marginal region across two distinct prehistoric chronological episodes. As part of a broader research project, this paper presents the results from an integrated, multiscale analysis of pottery through morpho-stylistic and macroscopic examination, thin section petrography, and wavelength dispersive X–ray fluorescence spectroscopy (WD-XRF). The analysis has revealed a compositionally diverse ceramic assemblage that represents a range of different raw material sources on the island and, by extension, different groups of people. The identification of off-island imports adds new evidence to the reconstruction of Aegean connectivity patterns. Agriomernos Cave constitutes a key archaeological site within an area previously unexplored, offering a unique opportunity to investigate ancient mobility, landscape sacrality, and ritual performances manifested through periodical and repeated acts of deposition.

This study analyzes in detail the last century of scholarly study, in China and internationally, into China's Bronze Age lost-wax casting techniques. It finds that research beginning in the early twentieth century has differentiated five lost-wax casting research periods, linked to different research methods and new archaeological discoveries of bronzes and casting relics. The methods that can be identified with a particular research period are: complete lost-wax (before 1931); semi lost-wax (1931–1959); complete piece-mold (1960–1977); both casting technologies (1978–2018); hollowed lost-wax (after 2019). Research shows that piece-mold casting was the dominant casting technology in the territories of the Shang and Zhou dynasty (before 221 BC) kings, but craftspeople used lost-wax casting skillfully at the latest in the Qin dynasty (before 210 BC). Lost-wax artifacts influenced by other cultures are occasionally seen in the border areas of the Shang and Zhou kingdoms. Research on organic constituents in the clay cores of hollowed lost-wax artifacts may provide a definite answer to this question.

Two papers examining Ming cloisonné enamels on metal and Chinese fahua glazes on ceramics were published in 1989. The analytical work was carried out at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at Oxford University, and all the cloisonné vessels analysed were dated to the later Ming Dynasty (Ming: 1368–1644). Various parallels and differences emerged from the studies, particularly regarding the extensive use of potassium oxide as a glass network modifier in both traditions. The cloisonné analyses, however, showed a number of novel features, such as the use of opaque enamels containing fluorite-opacified glass and enamel compositions that seemed to be mixtures of these glasses with lead-rich materials. Colourants such as lead-stannate yellow and iron-copper red were also found in later Ming cloisonné enamels, which at the time seemed without precedent in Chinese glass or glaze technology. Since this original work was published, a number of papers on earlier Ming cloisonné as well as on cloisonné enamels made during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) have appeared. Data on some 400 years of Chinese cloisonné production are therefore now available for consideration, and our current understanding of this technology is reviewed in the present paper. In addition, some recent finds of both fluorite-opacified glasses and high-lead glasses, dating to the Liao (907–1125) and Southern Song Dynasties (1127–1279), respectively, may throw some light on the earlier background to China's cloisonné enamel traditions.

During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, China was distinctive for its use of leaded tin bronze, which diverged from bronzes in the Eurasian steppe. A reanalysis of published chemical data of late Shang and Western Zhou bronze vessels aimed to shed light on the purposeful addition of tin and lead. The findings demonstrate that the concentration of tin follows two separate patterns, with the predominant one stabilizing at about 15% and the secondary one spreading below 7%, reflecting diverse metallurgical practices. Furthermore, the linear variation between copper and lead (Cu-Pb) implies that lead was added to substitute for copper, probably owing to resource scarcity or copper shortages in the growing bronze industry of early states.

This paper presents the first analytical data obtained from the examination of fragments of stunning Russian–Byzantine frescoes recovered from an archaeological excavation at Veliky Novgorod, one of the oldest cities in Russia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The archaeologists of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been working on architectural excavations at Novgorod for more than 20 years. In the last seven years, they have unearthed fragments of frescoes in the layers of the twelfth century AD during excavation under the floor of the Cathedral of St. George in the Yuriev Princely Monastery (built in 1119).

As a first step of this complex research, we decided to concentrate on blue and green pigments. A selection of 30 samples and around 30 parts of wall paintings still in situ, subdivided by technique and color nuance, were first autoptically examined and, where possible, studied by optical microscopy. In this way typical details, such as the use of additives to the mortars, different ways of treating and mixing the colors, and pigment layers, were recognized. For the first screening, the analytical data were collected using a portable X-ray fluorescence device. They indicated the use of a variety of pigments and mixtures to obtain different nuances of color. The samples were then analyzed by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometry. All phases of the study were recorded and documented by photos and micrographs of the most significant details. The data are discussed in the text and help explain the working habits of the painters of the time.

Ru ware is a very rare and highly prized stoneware from the end of the Northern Song period of China (960–1127 CE). Stylistic and art historical work by Regina Krahl (2021) suggests that a brush washer in the Sir Percival David Collection, housed in the British Museum, might be Ru rather than Korean Goryeo ware as previously thought. This paper reports the analysis of the glaze of this piece by handheld XRF in comparison with 10 pieces of Ru and 10 pieces of Goryeo ware. Despite the compositional similarity of the glazes, the analysis was able to show conclusively that the piece is Ru ware. The work has implications for the analysis of Chinese stoneware and beyond, showing that it may be possible (under the right conditions) to distinguish different productions relatively quickly and easily.

This paper presents the results of a diachronic and multidisciplinary investigation into the production and consumption of cooking ware in the ancient city of Priene (Turkey). Three major chronological horizons are considered, covering the fourth to the first century BCE: the late Classical/early Hellenistic period, the middle Hellenistic period, and the late Hellenistic/early Roman Imperial period. Following a thorough typological and macroscopic study of fabrics, an integrated analytical approach combining petrography and elemental analysis (wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence) was applied to investigate the main macroscopic types and fabrics that characterised cooking wares. Integration of the results from the typological study with the subsequent analyses of 90 representative samples has provided high-resolution insights into cooking ware production and consumption at Priene over the study period. In addition to tracing transformations in local and regional manufacture over time, the results show that cooking wares were imported to the city from several places and, moreover, at a scale at least equivalent to that for other categories of ceramic vessels at that time. Changes in the manufacturing technology of local and regional products and the origin of imports are discussed in the context of significant historical developments that took place in this region over the period covered by the study.

This paper describes the first comprehensive study of metal artefacts found at ancient Kerma, Sudan. Covering a period of several millennia, it investigates the development of copper alloy recipes as well as metal provenance through the trace element and lead isotope ratio analysis of forty-eight sampled objects. These include grave goods as well as production waste related to large-scale bronze casting performed at Kerma. This study is part of a wider evaluation of copper alloy production at Kerma through targeted workshop excavation, materials analysis, and experimental archaeology. The analytical results illustrate the gradual and flexible transition from arsenical copper to tin bronze alloys over time, in a pattern similarly observed in ancient Egypt. Trace element distributions and lead isotope ratios for copper used at Kerma are comparable to those of contemporary Egyptian artefacts too. These findings indicate the exploitation of ores similar to those mined at the Sinai Peninsula, although copper ore deposits in Nubia remain poorly characterized and thus difficult to identify as source candidates. Nonetheless, it can be suggested that metal provisioning networks along the Nile Valley likely overlapped to varying degrees over time. These results provide an important contribution to the mapping of technological exchanges that took place between ancient Egypt and Nubia.