Interpreting elements and isotopes in glass: a review

Substantial databases of elemental and isotopic analyses of ancient glass exist and are used to investigate raw material origin, trade, exchange, and processes such as mixing and recycling. However, the chemistry of archaeological glass may be challenging to the untrained. The paper provides structured information on the origin of chemical elements and their isotopes in ancient glass. It details some of the functions of individual elements in the glass and from which raw material(s) or process(es) they originate.Material Culture Studie

Early vitreous materials at Amarna

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:D203708 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Ancient biographies: trace element analysis to investigate provenance and transportation mechanisms of Late Bronze Age glass

LA-ICPMS analysis was carried out on a scaraboid blue glass bead (Hunterian Museum Glasgow, D.1921.39) excavated from Tomb 27 in Gurob, in the Southern Fayum region of Egypt. Gurob is known to have been the site of a "harem palace" established in the reign of Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 BC). The tomb was located at the northernmost point of the New Kingdom cemetery and was undisturbed, containing the remains of seven females and two children, and was dated by the excavators to between the reigns of Amenophis I (1525-1504 BC) and Tuthmosis III. The glass scarab was coloured by copper and trace element values of La, Cr, Ti and Zr exhibited compositional consistency with glasses from Mesopotamia, rather than from Egypt. Therefore, the glass scarab represents a rare example of Mesopotamian glass to be discovered in Egypt, in addition to being some of the earliest glass found. The finds support iconographic references in the Hall of the Annals at Karnak to the import of early glass into Egypt. The implication is that these beads represent luxury items transported into Egypt by high-ranking foreign women perhaps in connection with the Gurob harem palace

Characterization of Ceramics

Ceramics are the most abundant surviving material on many archaeological sites. Once discarded, they offer the archaeologist the possibility to reconstruct the shape of vessels and to identify their origin. Typo‐chronologies of ceramic vessels are studied on virtually every excavation worldwide as the prime stratigraphic dating tool. Ceramics function as a proxy to study craft organization and trade patterns, social stratigraphy, subsistence strategies and the standard of living. The identification of imported vessels in a mass of locally produced wares is perhaps the most frequently asked question in the study of ceramics. For all of this research, the scientific analysis of ceramics has great utility.</p

Isotopic palaeodiet studies of Ancient Egyptian fauna and humans

We report here stable carbon and nitrogen isotope results from human and faunal bone collagen from samples taken from sites in the Egyptian Nile Valley and surrounding region, dating from the Predynastic (c. 5500 BC) through to the Dynastic (c. 343 BC) periods. Isotopic values for the human population cluster together across this broad time range, with high δ15N ratios, and δ13C values indicating a largely C3 based diet. The human data is not easily explained through comparison with our associated faunal data, and so may be explained by the consumption of protein from an ecosystem we did not adequately sample, such as freshwater fish or plants and fauna with unusually high δ15N values due to the extreme aridity of this region. The faunal isotopic data we did produce shows a great range in values between and within species, especially in cattle, and reflects the close proximity of three ecozones across a relatively narrow geographical area; the river, the immediate flood-plain area around the Nile and the desert surroundings

Materials, techniques, and conservation of historic stained glass "Grisailles"

A grisaille is a brown-blackish paint applied onto the inner surface of stained glass to draw the contours and details of the figures and to produce the effect of shades and volumes. Grisailles were traditionally made of finely ground oxides of iron but also of copper, zinc, lead, or manganese mixed with a flux such as lead ground glass and a binder and fixed onto the flat glass by firing. The grisailles have typical layer thickness varying between 10 and 100 µm and are formed by a complex mixture of pigment particles, crystalline, and amorphous reaction compounds, aging, and weathering compounds. The high brilliance, collimation, energy selection, and monochromacity of the SR beam are ideal to obtain micro-XRD patterns from thin cross sections of the grisailles. The analyses are complemented with SEM-EDX and LA-ICPMS. A selection of grisailles from several cathedrals and buildings in Spain, Avila, Burgos, Alcalá de Henares, and in particular from Segovia, dating from early 16th to the 20th century and belonging to several master glaziers are studied. Changes in the methods of production and materials in the different historical periods are obtained and also related to the conservation state of the materials.Postprint (author's final draft