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Pixe Spectrometry as an Aid to Reconstruction of Ancient Processes of Bronze Production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

C.P. Swann  and
S.J. Fleming
C.P. Swann
Affiliation:
Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716
S.J. Fleming
Affiliation:
MASCA, The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, PA 19104
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Extract

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 123: Symposium L – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology I , 1988 , 77
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1988

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