Advances in Archaeomaterials最新文献

The wealth and diversity of decoration on Greek pottery continues to attract science-based attention. The availability of increasingly powerful analytical techniques has allowed the nature of the decoration to be investigated in ever-finer detail, down to the nano-particle level. Such work has gone hand in hand with replication experiments ranging from sourcing raw materials to experimental firing. As a result, there is a fuller understanding of the many material and other factors controlling the quality of a range of painted or coloured decorations, most notably black gloss, seen to best effect in the Black and Red Figure–style vases of Attic potters-painters in the sixth to fourth centuries BC. Light has also been shed on the manner in which a few of these craftspeople adapted established techniques to give special effects.

Reviewing the progress made on the decoration and firing of several pottery classes as well as other ceramics, such as terracotta figurines, this paper places this information into context in two ways. On the one hand, it covers the corresponding evidence for the decoration and firing of pottery of the Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age to chart diachronically the craft's technological development. On the other hand, it considers recent archaeological evidence for ceramic production.

The bodies of 12 examples of imperial yellow Chinese porcelain dating from the early sixteenth century to the early twentieth century have been studied by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The yellow lead glaze was reserved for imperial use, and these fine monochrome porcelains played important roles in imperial rites at the summer solstice and as court wares within Beijing's Forbidden City. The project's aim has been to understand more fully the technologies used to make imperial yellow porcelains, which were significant ceramics in the history and culture of imperial China.

This paper concerns the porcelain body material, particularly the nature and use of Jingdezhen's two prime body materials — porcelain stone (cishi) and kaolin (gaoling). The 12 samples studied span four centuries of imperial porcelain production and include a major change in kaolin usage at Jingdezhen in the early seventeenth century, when the proportions of kaolin used in fine porcelain bodies rose abruptly from some 20% to 50%. This study explores the natures of both prepared rocks and looks particularly at kaolin, about which some long-standing problems remain.

The earliest cast iron in China dates to the 8th century BC and pre-dates the earliest European evidence by about two millennia. The invention of cast iron smelting is closely related to the pre-existing and contemporary technologies of casting bronze and firing ceramics as well as the social and political context of early 1st millennium BC China. A series of early iron smelting furnaces were surveyed, excavated, and scientifically analysed. However, in order to understand how cast iron was initially produced, the evidence from one of the earliest production sites was digitally simulated. This modelling allowed different potential methods for the underlying production technology to be evaluated. The explanation for the invention of cast iron lies both in borrowing and developing of techniques found in other contemporary pyrotechnologies as well as a contemporary systemic philosophical approach.

The article is devoted to the Chinese mirrors found in the burials of the nomads of Asian Sarmatia. The typology and chronology of mirrors is presented, the earliest of which dates back to the period of the Warring States, but most of them, dating back to the 1st century BC – 2nd century AD. In the complexes of the second half of the 1st century BC – the first half of the 1st century AD the number of Chinese items in Asiatic Sarmatia is increasing. They are represented, among others, by two mirrors of the Western Han type, which come from the Lower Volga and Don regions; they are not known in the South Urals. In the complexes of the second half of the 1st– the first half of the 2nd century AD the Chinese mirrors are much more common. As before, they are not known in the Urals, but they are also represented in the Kuban and Lower Volga, and especially in the Lower Don region. In the burials of the late Sarmatian period of the late 2nd – middle / second half of the 3rd century AD Chinese mirrors are relatively abundant in the Urals, where the mapping of finds allows us to distinguish two local groups (1 – South Urals: Lebedevka and burial grounds in the Ilek river basin; 2 - South Bashkiria, interfluve of the Sakmara and the Urals rivers, and the Trans-Urals), while further to the west – in the Lower Volga and Don regions, they generally ceased to fall, only two mirrors are known outside the South Urals – in Trans-Kuban and Central Ciscaucasia. The issue of deliberate damage to mirrors is specially considered.

Is it possible to consider the Chinese bronze mirrors as trade items? If we assume that they belonged to the items of trade along the Silk Road, then two conclusions following from the dating of the finds should be taken into consideration. Firstly, these mirrors were not distributed to the ancient centers of the North Pontic area and further to the territory of the Roman provinces. Thus, the way of the mirrors ended in the steppe. Moreover, starting from the second half of the 2^nd century AD (late Sarmatian culture) Chinese mirrors cease to fall to the west of the Urals – their finds are unknown neither in the Lower Volga region, nor on the Don. This means that the connection between the distribution of the Chinese mirrors and the functioning of the northern branch of the Silk Road is unlikely.

Recent new evidence emerged from the crucible steel production site of Konasamudram, Telangana, India. A hoard of 60 crucible steel ingots from this site offers a unique opportunity to study details of the early large-scale production of this fabled material, beginning with a detailed documentation of the weights and sizes of 45 of them. Historically, Konasamudram has been an important pre-modern crucible steel manufacturing and trading centre in India, as reported by Persian and European travelogues, and may have been the source of many of the early ingots studied during the past 200 years. The aim of this work is to present a dimensional analysis of these ingots and interpret the data in the context of earlier studies, to address questions of consistency in manufacturing, standardization of weights and other physical attributes. The newly-discovered ingots show considerable uniformity in shape, size and weights, indicative of a single production event during the heydays of crucible steel making, while the ingots previously reported in the literature vary much more widely.

This study combines an analysis of archaeological remains, geographic background, and ethnoarchaeological research to gain insights into preconditions and processes of pottery making in northern China during the Yangshao period (5000–3000 BCE). Previous research on Neolithic ceramics from this region focused on typochronology while ethnoarchaeological research has largely been limited to southern China, where geology, geomorphology, and thus resource availability are entirely different. In this study, for the first time we connect ethnographic research in northern China with an analysis of local archaeological ceramics and raw material sources to gain insight into patterns of raw material choice, ceramic production and distribution, and their connection with geographic preconditions. In this fashion, we are able to show that potters, both past and present, systematically sought out suitable raw material and worked close to abundant water and clay resources and major routes of distribution. Standardization is shown to be a problematic concept as ceramic measurements may vary even in large-scale specialized production, but clay recipes and procedures may be standardized. It also becomes clear that in recent times, migrating or travelling potters are responsible for the spread of ceramic production techniques and types. Similar processes may have taken place in the past as well.