Archaeometry最新文献

Unalloyed copper objects were produced in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant in a two-step process. Copper ore was smelted in pit furnaces, and the mechanically extracted copper prills melt in crucibles and cast into objects. However, the air supply remained unknown, and practical considerations shed doubt on the validity of some of the reconstructed practices. To refine the reconstruction, the metallurgical material from Abu Matar was reassessed. Most importantly, several previously unreported fragments suggest the use of bellows and covering the furnace with large pottery fragments. Our results provide probably the earliest evidence for the use of bellows.

A study of the L'MLK jar handles based on neutron activation analysis reported an average chemical composition of Roman period pottery excavated in Jerusalem. Evidence was presented supporting the idea that the pottery, made of Motza clay, was made in Jerusalem or vicinity. Recently, the validity of the group composition as well as its assignment to Jerusalem as the origin of this composition was questioned. In this article, I present the unpublished data for individual pot shards comprising the chemical group and take a new look at the data on which the reported average composition was based. It is shown that the reported group composition is valid and that the suggestion that the group represents Hebron and not Jerusalem is not convincing but commends further exploration.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) enables the determination of the composition and structure of tiny calcified remains occasionally recovered during burial excavations. To deepen the practical application of this technique, we performed SEM/EDX analysis on three different tiny mineralized, roughly rounded structures with a diameter of less than 5 mm recovered from a pre-Hispanic collective funerary cave from El Hierro (Canary Islands) and a mineral spherulite of similar size and outer aspect. After SEM imaging and spectroscopic analysis, we conclude that the three samples represent a sesamoid bone, a kidney stone, and a possible case of sialolithiasis. In contrast, the spherulite is a mineral formation composed of calcium carbonate. Our data confirm SEM analysis's usefulness in identifying small, mineralized remains recovered during burial excavations and its contribution to studying past populations. However, we are aware that taphonomic changes may alter, at least partially, the structure, and/or elemental composition of archaeological samples, obscuring differential diagnosis.

The Middle Nile Valley offers exceptional environmental conditions that allow the preservation of organic materials, including textiles. This paper presents the results of the analysis of 17 samples collected from wool, cotton, and silk textiles excavated in the ancient capital of Old Dongola from layers dated to the 17th and 18th centuries CE. Chemical analysis using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) have identified both plant and animal dyes. Locally produced textiles, mostly from wool and decorated with blue, green, orange, and yellow hues, were dyed with woad (Isatis tinctoria), flavonoid plants, and madder-type roots, which were already known and used by medieval dyers in that area. For the first time, kermes (Kermes vermilio) and lac-dye (Kerria species) have been also identified as a dye source in samples from this group. Imported fabrics, of cotton and silk, were dyed blue with woad (I. tinctoria) but also with indigo (Indigofera tinctoria); dyer's broom (Genista tinctoria) and kermes (K. vermilio) were other dyes identified in this second group. The results of this study provide the first dye identification for textiles produced in the 17th–18th c. Sudan and contribute new data to the research on textile production and trade in post-medieval Sudan.

Material recovered from the Ma'agan Mikhael B shipwreck, off the coast of northern Israel, includes a significant assemblage of glass, which appears to represent waste workshop material (cullet) collected for recycling. Twenty-three samples were selected for analysis for major and minor elements using SEM-EDS, to provide insight into the activities and dating of the ship. The glass corresponds to known primary glass types, comprising a high- and a low-lime subgroup of Levantine 1 (Apollonia type), and Egypt 1b. The assemblage is likely to date to the early part of the eighth century CE and, in conjunction with the radiocarbon dating of the ship, gives a possible date range for the wreck of 710–740 C.E. All groups contain glass-working waste, glass chunks, and vessel fragments, and the majority are likely to have been collected from one or more workshops. It is unclear whether this cargo represents the byproducts of several campaigns of a single workshop which used different consignments of raw glass, or material from different workshops, collected at different ports of call.

A wooden polychrome statuette of Virgin and Child in Majesty, currently in the Museum Montanelli in Prague, is actually a torso. It was created in the 11th or 12th century at the latest, being the oldest wooden polychrome statuette in the Czech Republic. Current research combining advanced imaging and micro-analytical methods substantially contributed to the determination of its regional origin and detection and dating of later interventions. Identified pigments, including azurite, vivianite and smalt, together with changes in gilding technology, were found to be essential in tracing the story of the statuette over time.

This study reconstructed the technical chaîne operatoire of silver seed bead production in the Maikop culture on the basis of tracewear analysis and experimental research using silver beads from the Early Bronze Age dolmen (c. 3200–2900 bce) in kurgan 2 at Tsarskaya (1898). The results demonstrate that such beads were produced as a “garland” lost wax casting, when a garland of beads is formed on a hollow dry stalk (straw) that burns out during the casting process. The technology of “garland” casting is an original and, probably, the earliest solution in history that helped address the issue of large-scale production of uniform cast precious metal seed beads. It is not yet clear whether this technology was originally developed in the Caucasus or brought here from Western Asia, where the Maikop culture has its roots.

The observed weights of ancient coins are usually less than the nominal “ideal” weights of the coin standards to which they belong because state authorities took a fee—“seigniorage”—for minting coins to cover costs and to make a profit. The basis for calculating the amount taken by the state and the way it administered manufacture are not well understood. Here we analyze the weights of 1344 of the earliest coins of Athens (c. 550–479 bce). We reveal a parabolic relationship between the cost of the silver and the weights of the coins whereby a progressively higher proportion was taken as the denomination decreased, meaning that the smaller the coin, the larger was the proportion of silver taken from it. There was tight control of the minting process and mathematical sophistication in precisely adjusting the silver content from the first introduction of coinage. It also made minting a profitable business. Changes in minting practice can be detected with the introduction of the Athenian “owl” coins, when the percentage of silver taken by the state increased and the spread of weights widened to include coins weighing more than the nominal weight. The latter indicates a significant shift toward monetization of the economy.

The lateral angle method of sex estimation is tested on an archaeological population with genetic sex estimates. Casts of the internal auditory canal were made using a quick drying impression material on 90 individuals (76 adults and 14 nonadults) from Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Cambridgeshire. The anterior and posterior angles of the internal auditory canal were measured, and the relationship of the angle to genetic sex was tested. The posterior angle failed intra-observer error tests, and only the anterior angle could be analysed. Using the previously published sectioning point for unburnt remains (45°), the method did not adequately distinguish between the sexes. Furthermore, the difference between male and female was insufficient to create population-specific discriminant functions. The anterior angle does not meet the requirements for an osteological method of sex estimation, exhibiting no statistical correlation with genetic sex in this population.

This article presents the results of research on bricks from medieval castles in north-central Poland. They were characterised based on petrographic analyses of thin section and mutually complementary instrumental methods. The bricks came from the oldest parts of the castles preserved to this day, or from castles not preserved but examined and excavated during archaeological research. The data obtained allowed for the identification of building materials that shared similar material and technical properties and that can be associated with different phases of the castles. Based on the results, it was found that the Pleistocene tills commonly found around the castles were not used in the manufacturing of the bricks. Small local deposits of fatty clays were used—Pleistocene varved clays or Miocene variegated clays. The buildings differed in the composition and texture of their bricks, indicating that the local clay raw material was extracted for each building separately. The share of raw material brought in from larger exposures further afield was small. Analyses of brick samples indicate the use of a fatty clay raw material that was improved by the addition of clastic material (quartz sand or a mixture of sand and quartz silt of various fractions).