Ritual use, consumption, and depositional practices at Agriomernos Cave, Northwestern Samos (Greece): A ceramic analytical approach
2024
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...
The origin and development of Chinese ceramic saggers
2024
By combing and analyzing ancient literature, archaeological data, and test data, this paper systematically explores the origin, material, and development of the sagger firing process in ancient China....
From the hills to the sea: Mineralogical and chemical characterization of a roof tile assemblage from the Byzantine church at Ashdod-Yam (Israel)
2024
This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary approach characterizing roof tiles excavated at the Ashdod-Yam Byzantine church (Israel). Occupied from the late fourth/early fifth century CE,...
Investigation on restoration materials and techniques on bronze artifacts using non-invasive imaging and spectroscopic methods
2024
•Non-invasive imaging techniques reveal the characterization and the spatial distributions of restoration materials and techniques applied on bronze artefacts.•The bronze artefacts were repaired through...
Identifying recipes of historical cupels from Yunnan, China
2024
Cupellation was the most important silver extraction technology in the ancient world. No later than the Han Dynasty, China adopted cupellation in silver extraction. However, the cupel, the most significant...
Casting the Buddha across Southern Asia
2023
The production of copper alloy devotional images of the Buddha probably began in northern India sometime in the late second century CE but certainly by the third century. From there the transmission...
Ipsa and Odong: Decorative metalwork of Korea
2023
Inlay and patination are important elements in the prestige metalwork of East and Southeast Asia. There are several regional varieties, but they have many features in common, particularly in the use...
Evaluating accuracy and inter-laboratory reproducibility of the compositional analysis of ancient bronzes
2023
Chemical analysis is fundamental for archaeometric study of ancient Chinese bronzes. A large corpus of compositional data on ancient bronzes has been acquired through various modern analytical instruments....
The use and disappearance of vegetal fibres in clay–sand mixtures in furnace walls in pre-seventeenth-century iron smelting sites in the Chūgoku region (Japan)
2023
This paper investigates the importance of the presence of vegetal fibres within clay–sand mixtures in Japanese furnace walls in iron smelting sites in the Chūgoku region during the antique and medieval...
Surface matters: Decarburising wootz crucible steel ingots
2023
Wootz, the Indian crucible steel, is a hypereutectoid iron–carbon alloy and famous for its outstanding qualities. Due to the paucity of archaeological and historical ingot finds and conservative sampling...
On Blue and Green Pigments from the St. George Cathedral of Veliky Novgorod
December 2022
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...
Four centuries of cooking wares at Priene: Tracing transformation in supply and trade patterns in western Asia minor (Turkey)
December 2022
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...
Revisiting the addition of tin and lead in Chinese bronzes: A statistical perspective
December 2022
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...
Characterising Chinese Ru ware in the Sir Percival David collection at the British Museum using handheld XRF analysis
December 2022
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...
A Review of the History of Research in Lost-Wax Casting in Bronze Age China Over the Past Century
December 2022
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...
Chinese cloisonné revisited
December 2022
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...
X-ray computed tomography reveals special casting techniques used with unusual bronze objects unearthed from the Sanxingdui site
June 2022
Scholars in a wide range of disciplines are interested in the casting techniques used to create the extraordinary bronze objects unearthed from the two pits of the Sanxingdui site. Although researchers...
Numerical simulation and comparative study for the zinc smelting furnaces at the Tongmuling site in Qing Dynasty, Hunan Province, China
June 2022
Brass, which appears golden in color, used to be a valuable alloy in ancient times. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Chinese used special furnaces to smelt zinc for minting and exporting to overseas...
Copper at ancient Kerma: A diachronic investigation of alloys and raw materials
June 2022
•First overview of Kerma copper alloys.•Trace element and lead isotope data for forty-eight artefacts.•Flexible alloying strategies from Middle Kerma period onwards.•Possibly shared provisioning networks...
Stasis or stimulus? Exotic materials and social display in Southeast Asia: Response to Pfaffenberger
June 2022
This paper assesses the relationship between metallurgy and social change in prehistoric Thailand. One model proposes that for about 15 centuries after circa 2000 BCE, peaceful village communities,...
The Decoration and Firing of Ancient Greek Pottery: A Review of Recent Investigations
December 2021
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...
Invention of cast iron smelting in early China: Archaeological survey and numerical simulation
June 2021
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...
