THE ‘DELLA ROBBIA BLUE’: A CASE STUDY FOR THE USE OF COBALT PIGMENTS IN CERAMICS DURING THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE*

The morphologies and elemental compositions of cobalt blue glazes are studied in 56 dated and undated terracotta sculptures from the Florentine della Robbia school. The data allow tracing of the pigments through correlations amongst elements that are known to be constituents of the cobalt minerals. The supply of such minerals from the Erzgebirge region in Renaissance times is compatible with our data. A substantial change in the materials is marked by the presence of arsenic and bismuth in the glaze, and by reduced amounts of iron and nickel just before 1520. We speculate that this is due to procedures introduced to industrialize the production of the blue pigment. The exploitation of different cobalt minerals in association with different production procedures may explain the variability of compositions that we observe in this unique ensemble.     

MICRO‐RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY CHARACTERIZATION OF DELLA ROBBIA GLAZES*

Micro‐Raman spectroscopy and the laser‐induced transformation technique were used for systematic study of five coloured glazes on Saint John the Baptist (29 inch tondo), a majolica terracotta relief attributed to Luca Della Robbia and on permanent exhibit in The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. We suggest that ions in a lead silicate matrix, called ‘lead ultramarine’, could contribute to the famous Della Robbia blue colour, in addition to the effect of Co atoms as suggested previously by Pappalardo et al. (2004 ). The original yellow glaze contains lead(II) antimonate. The green is a mixture of the yellow and blue pigments, the brown contains hematite, and the white glaze contains tin dioxide as an opacifier. The use of lead oxide as a main fluxing agent is confirmed by laser‐induced micro‐crystallization.     

BLACK AND RED GRANITES IN THE EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITY MUSEUM OF TURIN: A MINERO‐PETROGRAPHIC AND PROVENANCE STUDY

A recent project to investigate the stone artefacts preserved in the Egyptian Antiquity Museum of Turin has been undertaken, with the aim of supplying their systematic classification and suggesting the provenance site of the original raw materials. This paper focuses on seven sculptures dating back to the New Kingdom (18th–19th Dynasties): the statue of Ramses II, three of the 21 sculptures of the goddess Sekhmet, the statue of the goddess Hathor, the Ram‐headed Sphinx and the sarcophagus lid of Nefertari. Petrographic observations have shown that all the sculptures are made of granitoid rocks, with variable composition from granite to granodiorite and tonalite. The observation of strong macroscopic analogies with the so‐called black and red granites outcropping in the Aswan area has suggested a common origin of all the raw materials used for their manufacture. In order to verify this provenance hypothesis, several samples were collected in the Aswan quarry districts. According to results of a minero‐petrographic and geochemical comparison between the statues and the Aswan quarry samples, it was possible to identify the source area of the stone sculptures and finally to highlight the importance of an archaeometric approach to the solution of archaeological problems.     

APPLICATIONS OF PETROGRAPHY AND ELECTRON MICROPROBE ANALYSIS TO THE STUDY OF INDIAN STONE SCULPTURE*

Examples of research on ancient Indian stone artefacts utilizing petrographic examination coupled with qualitative and quantitative electron beam microprobe analysis of specific minerals are described. Types of artefacts discussed include Gandharan schist sculptures. Pala dynasty phyllite and schist objects from eastern India, Hoysala sculptures from Karnataka state (southern India), and sandstone objects from northern India. In spite of the rich history of stone sculpture in the Indian subcontinent, characterization studies to date have been limited in scope, typically involving unprovenanced artefacts. The examples described point to areas in which more extensive research could produce useful information for the provenancing of artefacts.     

The skeleton of a medieval male with multiple traumatic fractures from Piazza della Signoria,Florence, Italy

We report on the palaeopathology of a medieval skeleton of a young adult male with multiple traumatic fractures found in 1989 in Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy. The skeleton presents ante mortem fractures of the right ulna and femur, and left tibia and fibula. We reconstruct the dynamics of the accident based on the location and type of fractures. Then we discuss the impact of this severe trauma on the subject's living conditions based on articular and enthesic modifications of the skeleton. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF IBERIAN IRON AGE STONE SCULPTURES AND THEIR SURFACE MARKS

The Archaeological Museum of Jaén's sizeable collection of Iron Age sculptures, dating from the fifth century bce , were all found at Cerrillo Blanco de Porcuna, a site in the Spanish province of Jaén. The collection comprises over 40 statues and hundreds of fragments. Incisions recently identified on some of these sculptures have been interpreted as sculptors' marks. The present archaeometric study, conducted with a 3D roughness meter, showed that the marks on several of the sculptures analysed were made with the same type of tool and the same engraving technique. While the graphological differences denote different authorship, they would appear to have been made in the same workshop. The morphological differences observed in the lines analysed on other sculptures are interpreted to indicate the use of other types of tools and engraving techniques.     

THE RULES OF THE GAME IN THE STUDY OF ANCIENT HISTORY

“The Rules of the Game,” expounded in ten remarkably bold theses, can easily be read as a synthetic retrospective or introduction to the formidable oeuvre of Arnaldo Momigliano. Indeed, this piece served as the opening chapter to his Introduzione bibliografica alla storia greca fino a Socrate (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1975), and its subsequent reprints as an independent essay in several Italian journals and anthologies signal its importance for Momigliano. In this provocative and occasionally brilliantly witty essay, Momigliano sets forth his programmatic views on the ethos of the historian, as well as on the historical method and its applications in the study of ancient history. Here, as elsewhere, Momigliano is interested in detailing the link between ancient documents and their historical interpretations in later millennia. Ancient sources, he cautions, do not capture ancient realities transparently or completely, but are mediated documents whose historical value hinges, within certain limits, on the historian's analytical questions, inflected as they inevitably are by different ideological commitments. For this reason, he places special emphasis on the comparative method, stressing difference rather than similarity, and advises that historians with various areas of expertise collaborate, a point underscored throughout the essay. What is more, the essay contains the salutary reminder that the historian ought to attend not only to the surviving documents but also to the conspicuous silences and lacunae in the evidence.     

COMPOSITIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FRENCH LIMESTONE: A NEW TOOL FOR ART HISTORIANS*

Limestone from quarries known to medieval craftsmen and from the monuments they built and embellished, as well as from carvings now in museum collections, has been characterized by neutron activation analysis. Specimens from 38 quarries in the Lutetian and Jurassic limestone formations of France and from sculptures in American and French museums have been tested, and the results have been compiled in a data base to which art historians may refer when attempting to determine provenance for sculptures. Multivariate statistical analysis of concentration data shows stone from a particular quarry in the Paris basin to be compositionally homogeneous and distinguishable from other quarries in the same formation. The same approach to data related to quarries near the Burgundian abbey of Cluny finds general agreement between classifications based on compositional and on petrographic data, but the number of samples available for analysis at the time of writing was insufficient to achieve the finer distinctions reported for the Paris basin.     

GEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF VITREOUS ROCKS EXPLOITED DURING THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN THE ATACAMA REGION,NORTHERN CHILE*

Petrographic analysis and geochemical characterization studies were carried out on vitreous dacite and/or rhyodacite artefacts from Formative period archaeological sites in the upper Salado River Basin in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. These were compared with samples taken from two source areas located within the subregion, named Linzor and Paniri. Source samples and archaeological specimens were analysed by inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) combined with optical emission plasma – mass spectrometry (ICP–OES) and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Results from the limited number of samples analysed indicate that the Linzor source seems to have been the primary source exploited during the Early and Late Formative periods in the Salado River Basin.     

CHALLENGES IN THE ANALYSIS OF HETEROGENEOUS POTTERY BY LA–ICP–MS: A COMPARISON WITH INAA*

Tempers added to pottery have the potential to obscure geographical variation in the chemistry of exploited clay resources when analysed using bulk methods. A pilot study was conducted to assess the possibility of using LA–ICP–MS to analyse clay matrix in pottery with extremely subtle partitions between INAA chemical groups. LA–ICP–MS was used to analyse the clay matrix of 32 pottery samples from seven Middle and Late Woodland period (c. ad 200–800) sites in north‐east Florida and results were compared to data from INAA of the same samples. The results reveal many of the challenges in analysing highly heterogeneous materials with LA–ICP–MS. However, the study also generated data that are potentially useful in the determination of pottery provenance. In some respects, LA–ICP–MS of clay matrix replicated the chemical variation recorded by INAA, and in other respects the results are divergent. The similarities and differences between these results are explained by specific differences between the methods and the materials analysed (matrix versus bulk analysis). Suggestions for improving the method are discussed.     

STUDY ON THE PROVENANCE OF XICUN QINGBAI WARES FROM THE NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY OF CHINA

The Xicun kiln in Guangdong Province was a famous porcelain kiln in the Song Dynasty of China, and for years there has been controversy over the provenance of Xixun Qingbai wares. This paper analyses Qingbai samples from the Xicun, Hutian (Jingdezhen) and Chaozhou (Guangdong Province) kilns by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) and energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence probe (EDXRF). The analytical results indicate that wares with a thin body excavated from the Xicun kiln site were produced in the Hutian kiln, and wares with a thick body were locally fired in Xicun; the contents of trace elements (V, Rb, Ba, Ta, Pb and Th) and the Nb/Ta ratio can be used to discriminate the products from the Xicun and Chaozhou kilns.     

关于社区地标景观感知和认同的研究

一个城市或地区通常有其标志性人工建筑物,它体现着这个城市或地区的魅力和特征。这样的人工建筑物被称为"地标"。本研究选择北京崇文区天坛街道的金鱼池小区的老舍作品群雕作为该小区的地标,从环境感知(如颜色、造型、体积、位置等)和心理认同的角度(功能、意义和情感等的认同)考察了居民对之的接受程度。调查统计显示,年龄、性别、职业、受教育程度、居住时间等因素影响个体对小区地标的环境感知和心理认同程度。社会心理学的理论和概念可以解释调查组间的差异是符合逻辑的,即年长者、在本地居住时间较长者、工人对地标的接受程度高于对比组;受教育水平低的是工人,他们对地标的接受度比对比组高;性别对地标的感知和认同差别不大。本论文的结论是老舍作品群雕是金鱼池小区的地标,这一文化景观是该小区地方性的表征要素,由于它反映了小区的历史文化,所以被人们接受。地方文化建设的基本单位是小区,加强和谐社区建设,需要社区认同。本研究的结论的应用意义是,社区认同需要有一个文化景观作为认同物,这个认同物可以是建筑,也可以是雕塑等不可移动的地上艺术作品。地标的明确可以促进社区的内在文化凝聚力。     

传承与困惑——徽州三雕调研有感

基于对徽州三雕田野调研的基础,论述了徽州三雕在各时期的发展、传承及困惑,提出了徽州三雕在新时期继续发展的一些观点。     

THE SECTILIA PANELS OF FARAGOLA (ASCOLI SATRIANO,SOUTHERN ITALY): A MULTI‐ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE RED,ORANGE AND YELLOW GLASS SLABS*

SEM–EDS, EMPA, ICP–MS and ICP–OES were applied to the study of three sectilia panels made of red, orange and yellow glass slabs. In order to determine the chemical state of Cu, XAS was also performed. The results indicate that, with the exception of the red samples, all slabs were made by mixing a siliceous sand with natron. The red slabs show significant compositional differences with respect to K₂O and MgO contents, probably linked to the use of plant ashes as a source of alkali. The red, orange and yellow slabs are coloured by metallic copper, cuprite and Pb antimonates, respectively. The comparison between the chemical composition of the Faragola samples and several glass reference groups did not provide conclusive evidence of provenance.     

喀斯特洞穴书法景观的分类统计与洞穴旅游发展——以广西桂林市为例

书法景观是近期人文地理中出现的新的研究领域,以洞穴石刻为主体的洞穴书法景观的研究目前尚非常缺乏。本文通过对桂林市域1659个历史石刻的分类统计,首先梳理了洞穴石刻,同时结合洞穴石刻总数分析评价了旅游洞穴的吸引度。其次,划分了石刻的形式类型和内容类型,进而归纳为6大类旅游相关类型-亦即景点建设、粗放旅游、深层体验、群体旅游、景点历史、民俗,并进行了洞穴石刻相应的分类统计,分析了不同朝代洞穴旅游的兴衰状况和结构变化特征。     

CHARACTERIZATION AND PROVENANCE OF LIME PLASTERS FROM THE TEMPLO MAYOR OF TENOCHTITLAN (MEXICO CITY)

In this work, we present the results of the analyses of 20 lime plaster samples taken from the Templo Mayor (Great Temple), the main pyramid of Tenochtitlan (Mexico), the ancient capital of the Mexicas. The samples were analysed to recover information on the mixtures used in the fabrication of the plasters and for the provenance of the raw materials (in particular, limestone) used to make the plasters. The characterization of the samples was done by OM, SEM/EDS, XRF and LA–ICP–MS analyses, while the identification of the provenance of raw materials was done by studying the lumps present in the samples with LA–ICP–MS. The objective of the study was to establish if there was a relationship between changes in the construction techniques employed in the pyramid over time and if there were changes in the provenance of the raw materials. Six different construction phases of this pyramid are analysed, showing the similarities and differences among them, mainly based on differences in the sieving of the aggregates and in the raw materials employed. The provenance studies of the limestone used to make the plasters demonstrated that all the limestone comes from the Tula region.     

城市雕塑景观象征意义对城市新区居民地方依恋的影响——以鄂尔多斯康巴什为例

城市雕塑景观作为最重要的城市文化景观之一,研究其象征意义对城市新区居民地方依恋的影响具有重要意义。本文运用结构方程模型,以鄂尔多斯康巴什为案例进行实证研究。研究发现:①城市雕塑景观象征意义可分为地方文化、政治意义以及情感意义三个维度;②城市新区居民地方依恋可分为地方依赖与地方认同两个维度且地方依赖大于地方认同;③城市雕塑景观象征意义会影响居民对城市新区地方依赖,进而影响地方认同;另外象征意义也会直接对地方认同产生影响;同时城市雕塑景观象征意义三个维度两两之间存在着较强的相关关系。     

莫高窟壁画彩塑表面降尘调查研究

通过对莫高窟壁画彩塑表面降尘进行收集，分析降尘粒径分布、化学组成、显微形貌、可溶盐含量等理化性质，进而研究降尘对莫高窟壁画彩塑的影响。研究结果发现：莫高窟壁画彩塑表面的降尘大部分为地壳源矿物，对窟内壁画、彩塑带来的潜在危害是物理遮盖和磨蚀等作用，在更长的时间尺度上，降尘会对壁画彩塑具有潜在的盐蚀等化学威胁。莫高窟壁画彩塑表面降尘是导致壁画彩塑产生病害的一个不可忽视的重要因素。研究的结果为莫高窟壁画彩塑预防性保护提供基础数据。