Bronze alloy production during the Iron Age of Luristan: a multianalytical study on recently discovered bronze objects

Application of bronze alloy to produce artistic and religious artefacts was commonplace during the Iron Age in western Iran (1500–550 BC). These bronze artefacts are the so-called Luristan bronzes and have been found often from excavated graves and sanctuaries. The aim of this paper is to study on alloy composition and manufacturing process in some recently excavated objects from the Iron Age cemetery of Baba Jilan, northern Luristan. For this purpose, some objects were analysed by quantitative ICP-MS as well as microscopic studies by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and metallography methods. Also, some comparisons were carried out between Baba Jilan and other analysed bronze objects from Luristan in order to identify the metalworking process in bronze objects from the Iron Age of western Iran. The results showed that all Baba Jilan samples are made of binary copper-tin alloy. Tin content was variable in the composition of the samples. The variety of tin constituents proved that alloying has been performed by an uncontrolled process to produce bronze. The microscopic studies also showed that the manufacturing operations are similar in the Luristan bronzes. It was carried out to identify probable similarities in the bronze alloy production in the Iron Age of the Luristan region.     

The Dispersed Sculpture of Parthenay and the Contributions of Nuclear Science

Abstract

TWENTY-TWO limestone sculptures, thought to have once decorated the now-destroyed 12th-century church Notre-Dame-de-la-Couldre in Parthenay (Deux-Sèvres), are dispersed in numerous American and French museum collections. To assess their provenance, stylistic analysis and documentary evidence are here combined with compositional analysis of their stone by neutron activation. Comparison of the resulting compositional profiles with those of samples from the still-standing west façade produced matches for works in the Musée du Louvre, Glencairn Museum, William Hayes Fogg Museum, and a private collection. Samples from sculptures in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art differ in composition from each other and from those that match stone from the façade of Notre-Dame-de-la-Couldre. Still other works, such as those in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, returned varied results conflicting with other provenance information. This application of scientific techniques sheds new light on these sculptures, but just as importantly, this diverse group — by offering a range of archival, photographic, and restoration records — provides an excellent demonstration of the contributions, as well as limitations, of nuclear science to provenance study.     

博物馆策展人:学者艺术鉴赏家展览组织者——屈志仁先生专访

博物馆策展人的素质与能力是博物馆陈列展览特别是专题展览成功的关键因素之一.美国大都会艺术博物馆亚洲艺术部主任、国际著名博物馆策展人屈志仁先生以"忽必烈的时代"展为例指出:博物馆策展人应同时具备学者、艺术鉴赏家与展览组织者的素质与能力,通晓与展览有关的历史学、艺术史、文化史及文物与博物馆学等学科知识,组织、协调从研究策划...     

The Excavations at Stična in Slovenia by the Duchess of Mecklenburg, 1905–1914

Abstract

Museum collections of documented but unpublished archaeological material often constitute excellent sources of primary archaeological data. The Duchess of Mecklenburg excavated extensively at Iron Age cemeteries in Slovenia, in what is now part of Yugoslavia, just before the First World War. Her collection, which is now being published, provides hundreds of well-documented grave groups for study. This article considers her work at the site of Sti?na and is concerned particularly with the graves containing weapons excavated at that site.     

大都会艺术博物馆教育工作述评

全文结合笔者对国内外博物馆教育工作的理解,对大都会博物馆的教育理念、教育资源、教育活动以及教育工作的统计数据进行了介绍与评析,认为大都会博物馆在教育理念为先、教育体系完善、教育以人为本以及注重基础数据的统计与研究等方面,都值得国内博物馆教育工作参考借鉴.     

SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF FAIENCE FRAGMENTS ATTRIBUTED TO THE TOWN MOSAIC AT KNOSSOS*

We analysed a faience fragment from Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, to determine whether it belonged to the Town Mosaic, excavated at Knossos. Three Town Mosaic fragments from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford were also examined. The objects were analysed using non‐destructive variable‐pressure scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectrometry. The Bristol object's composition and microstructures are similar to those of the Town Mosaic samples. Our results are also comparable to those from polished samples of Minoan faience (Tite et al. 2009 ), showing that VP SEM–EDX gives reliable results without invasive sampling. Silicaceous, copper‐rich microspheres were identified for the first time in two of the Ashmolean objects.     

The Characterization of Vegetable Tannins and Colouring Agents in Ancient Egyptian Leather from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This work characterizes both tanning and colouring materials found in ancient Egyptian leather objects from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The analytical investigations focused on assessing the development of the technology of ancient tanners using high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), X‐ray fluorescence (XRF), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT–IR), X‐ray radiography and a scanning electron microscope connected to an energy‐dispersive X‐ray detector (SEM–EDX). Reference leather samples and archaeological leather objects were investigated to identify the animal skin species and the early use of hydrolyzable vegetable tannins for leather tanning. Different methods were used to colour th leather, including madder dying and staining with hematite, or painting with Egyptian blue and Egyptian green.     

‘A Cunning Skill Did Lurk’: Susanna Perwich and the Mysteries of a Seventeenth-Century Needlework Cabinet

A seventeenth-century embroidered cabinet belonging to the Los Angeles Museum of Art includes a rare detail — a coat of arms. This essay explores the likelihood that the maker of this cabinet, as established by its coat of arms, was a member of the Perwich family, who ran a girls’ school in Civil War-era London, and the possibility that the cabinet was made by Susanna Perwich, a musical prodigy and subject of a 1661 biography published shortly after her untimely death. This essay discusses connections between Perwich’s life and the cabinet’s needleworked illustrations, revealing that the cabinet illustrates the Book of Ruth. Cabinets and caskets with their many compartments can be seen as metaphors for the compartmentalisation of the lives of late seventeenth-century Englishwomen who were excluded from many male-dominated physical and intellectual spaces in the aftermath of the English Civil War but who, nonetheless, created and meaningfully embellished personal objects in their own spaces.     

历史与实践:纽约大都会博物馆的中国艺术收藏

纽约大都会博物馆的中国艺术收藏已有130年的历程。其间收藏的器类始于制作精美、雅俗共赏的明清瓷器,继而扩展到玉器、金银器、珐琅器、牙雕等整个明清时代的装饰艺术,再进一步扩展到中国古代的青铜礼器、玉器、陶塑和佛教造像,并且随着西方对于中国艺术的研究的深入,观众和收藏家逐渐领略到中国书画艺术深邃的文化内涵,最终全面地了解绵延不断的中华五千年文明;其收藏历程则见证了美国,或是说西方对中国文化艺术的认知过程,收藏过程中所形成的收藏家、赞助人和博物馆业务主任成功的合作模式和经验或许可以给中国的博物馆提供有益的借鉴。     

On Pins and Needles: Tracing the Evolution of Copper-base Alloying at Tepe Yahya, Iran, via ICP-MS Analysis of Common-place Items

From 1967 to 1975 a team of archaeologists excavated the site of Tepe Yahya in southeastern Iran under the direction of C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky. Although there are two forthcoming “final reports” (Hiebert (in progress), and Magee (in press); see also Lamberg-Karlovsky & Potts, 2001), analysis of the materials continues as opportunities allow. Metal artefacts, most especially those made of copper and its alloys, are found at this site from the late Neolithic through the Iron Age. Archaeometallurgical analysis, radiocarbon chronologies, and archaeological interpretation allow one to state when and how a type of metal or a style of object was invented, its use as a trade item, and its function and value to an ancient community. In the hopes of establishing a framework for future archaeometallurgical studies, most of the metal artefacts from Tepe Yahya, Iran, stored in the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, were analysed for elemental composition to complement stylistic and metallographic data.     

江苏邳州山头遗址发掘简报

山头遗址位于江苏省邳州市戴庄镇山头村西北,是中运河沿线一处重要的史前聚落遗址。2008年2—5月,由江苏徐州博物馆和邳州博物馆组成的考古队对山头遗址进行了考古发掘,共发现房址2座、灰坑51个,出土了大量的陶、石、骨、角器等遗物,主要为大汶口文化和汉代文化遗存。     

Khmer sandstone quarries of Kulen Mountain and Koh Ker: a petrographic and geochemical study

Sandstone from several ancient quarries and natural outcrops located at the eastern foothill of Kulen Mountain and in Koh Ker, northern Cambodia, has been characterized by means of petrographic analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and geochemical analysis. The samples have been collected during a series of field surveys organized jointly by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA). The data show how the sandstone quarried from these sites is characterized by an overall petrographic and geochemical homogeneity, and is consistent with the upper terms of the Lower–Middle Jurassic Terrain Rouge Formation.     

湖北随州市王家台遗址发掘简报

王家台遗址位于随州市均水涢水交汇处。2006年10~11月,为配合随岳高速公路工程建设,随州市博物馆对该遗址进行了抢救性发掘。遗址包含东周、西汉和唐代三个时期的文化遗存。东周文化遗存为主要收获,出土器物以鬲、豆、瓮、罐等构成主次分明的梯次组合,为研究古代曾国(随国)历史文化提供了实物资料。     

甘家坡遗址发掘简报

甘家坡遗址位于湖北省兴山县小河村1组。2004年7月至8月,咸宁市博物馆对该遗址进行了勘探发掘,发掘面积300平方米,获得了一批春秋、宋、明时期的重要遗迹和遗物。清理出春秋时期的房基址2座、灰坑1个、宋代沟1条,出土了一批陶、瓷、铁等不同质地的文化遗物。虽然遗址保存状况差,遗存堆积薄,但这是香溪河中游地区首次发现的春秋遗存,对我们了解香溪河流域两周之际文化面貌有着重要意义。     

山东章丘市大康遗址发掘简报

2001年 9月, 山东省章丘市博物馆对章丘市大康遗址进行了发掘, 发掘面积 50平方米, 发现龙山文化、岳石文化等遗存。该遗址面积较大, 为章丘市境内一处较为重要的古文化遗址。     

郑州西山河南艺术职业学院秦汉墓葬发掘简报

2004年,河南省文物考古研究所发掘了河南艺术职业学院新校址的27座秦汉墓葬,年代跨度从战国到西汉晚期。其墓葬形制及出土器物体现了秦文化对中原地区的影响,为研究秦汉时期关中地区与中原地区文化交流以及中原地区丧葬习俗的演变提供了宝贵材料。     

PIECING TOGETHER THE STORY OF A PAIR OF MAKRON’S FRAGMENTED CUPS

In 2022, an Athenian red-figured cup attributed to Makron was returned to Italy by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The cup had been acquired in fragments, through purchase and gift, from multiple sources over several years, starting with two fragments from the restorer Fritz Bürki in 1978. A second cup, also attributed to Makron, was acquired in a parallel way. The sources for the fragments from both cups point to galleries collectors and donors – Summa Galleries, Frieda Tchachos, Elizabeth Hecht, and Dietrich von Bothmer – who have been associated with other material that has been repatriated to Italy in recent years. It is suggested that some of the incised ‘signatures’ by Hieron that are found on cups attributed to Makron may have been applied since antiquity.     

THERMOLUMINESCENCE AUTHENTICITY MEASUREMENTS ON CORE MATERIAL FROM THE BRONZE HORSE OF THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

The Bronze Horse of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, suspected in recent years of being a modern forgery, is shown by thermoluminescence to have been made in antiquity. Besides the standard thermoluminescence measurements, a new technique was used, utilizing single, highly radioactive grains of zircon separated from the core material of the horse. The zircon grains, because of their high radioactivities (100–200 ppm) and subsequent large internal alpha doses (60–170 krad), are negligibly affected by γ irradiations given to the horse during previous examination. The results show the horse was made 2000 to 4000 years ago, consistent with a work of classical antiquity.     

Early Hominin Paleoecology

Abstract

This paper reports on the zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical remains from the initial season of excavations at the Norse period site at Undir Junkarinsfløtti in the Faroe islands. These remains represent the first zooarchaeological analysis undertaken for the Faroes and only the third archaeobotanical assemblage published from the islands. The excavated deposits are described and the key findings from the palaeoenvironmental remains highlighted within the context of the wider North Atlantic environmental archaeology of the Norse period.     

三件红山玉巫人评述

红山文化是史前北方燕辽地区一个重要的考古文化区,主要分布于内蒙古东南部、辽宁西部及河北北部,距今约6500-4800年,红山文化玉器主要出现于红山文化晚期,距今约为5500-4800年。本文评述重点是红山重器的三件玉雕人像。第一件是考古发掘品。2002年,辽宁朝阳牛河梁遗址第十六地点四号墓人骨骼的左侧骨盆外侧出土了一件玉人