横岭山商周时期玉器的质地、白化现象和玉料产地研究

为研究广东博罗横岭山商周时期墓地出土玉器的质地、白化现象和玉料产地,对玉料样品进行常规矿物学、红外光谱、X射线粉晶衍射、扫描电镜和拉曼光谱的测试。结果显示,该墓地出土玉器的材质包括石英、水晶、透闪石（软玉）和杂砂岩。其中,透闪石质的玉器呈白色、不透明的外观,被认为和酸性土壤的腐蚀有关;出土的石英质玉器（含水晶器）的包裹体特征及包裹体均一温度显示该墓地出土的石英质玉器（含水晶器）的玉料较可能来自变质石英岩。伟晶岩或高温石英脉,将其与博罗本地、台山地区（近环珠江口地区）的石英及水晶样品进行对比,未有证据显示该墓地出土的石英质玉器（含水晶器）的原料来自上述地区。本研究可为揭示商周时期珠江三角洲地区的先民对自然资源的认识和利用能力以及当时社会的生产力水平、物品交换及贸易路线等方面提供基础科学依据。     

内蒙古阿尔寨石窟壁画制作工艺和颜料的分析研究

为了解阿尔寨石窟壁画的制作工艺和颜料成分,采用偏光显微镜分析、剖面分析,并结合X射线衍射分析对6个洞窟的23个样品进行了分析。为了进一步研究阿尔寨石窟壁画颜料,还通过偏光显微法对其他地区和年代的壁画颜料进行了对比研究。结果表明,其绘制方法是先用加有麦秸的粘土将洞窟壁面抹平,然后用石灰涂白。再施以彩绘。所使用的颜料为矿物质颜料,多为绿、白、红、蓝色等。其绿色颜料为氯铜矿,白色颜料为碳酸钙,红色颜料为朱砂和铅丹,蓝色颜料为石青。     

中子衍射和成像技术在文物领域中的应用进展

中子衍射和成像技术是利用中子束穿透性强、元素分辨率高等特点,对物体进行原位、无损和块扫描,实现材料组成定性定量分析和内部结构可视化检测。在此通过介绍中子衍射和成像技术的基本原理和特点,总结其在国内外文物领域的应用研究现状,显示中子衍射和成像技术在文物研究中的突出优势和广阔应用前景,为其在中国文化遗产保护领域的应用研究提供参考。     

Metallurgical findings from a Viking Age chieftain’s farm in Iceland

The metalworking, metal import, and use of metal in medieval Iceland is still little understood. When the Scandinavian settlers colonized Iceland in the 9th c. AD, the island was found to contain no useful metal deposits save for bog iron, and the deforestation that followed the settlement resulted in a scarcity of wood. Only in the last decades have archaeological excavations begun to unravel how the first Icelanders dealt with this lack of resources. This paper presents the metallurgical findings from a Viking Age chieftain's farmstead at Hrísbrú in the Mosfell valley, located just outside Iceland’s present-day capital Reykjavik. The excavated metal objects had all been crafted with good workmanship employing technology similar to that used in mainland Scandinavia. However, most excavated metal finds show evidence of re-use, which together with the second-grade metal in some of the objects indicates a shortage of raw material that prompted the Icelandic colonizers to improvise and make do with whatever material was at hand.     

Identifying the sources of Inka period ceramics from northern Chile: results of a neutron activation study

To examine regional patterns of ceramic production and distribution during the era of Inka domination in northern Chile, we determined the elemental compositions of 157 samples of archaeological ceramics and geological clays from the sites of Catarpe and Turi using instrumental neutron activation analysis. We identified two major and three minor composition groups in the ceramics. The major groups, High Cr and Low Cr, are linked to clays from two broad geological contexts within the region, while the minor Low Na group is made up of ceramics imported from northwestern Argentina. The distribution of the composition groups indicates that, in the Catarpe–Turi region, patterns of ceramic production differed for different vessel types: jars were made from clay and temper acquired near the sites where the jars were used, while bowls were made of material coming from more distant sources. The geographical distribution of the analyzed ceramics indicates that bowls were exchanged between Catarpe and Turi in a pattern more similar to tribute/extraction than to market exchange, with Catarpe being the dominant site. The compositional analysis also demonstrates that Inka-style ceramics were being locally produced at sites in this region during the era of Inka domination.     

Characterization of bricks and tiles from the 17th-century brick Chapel,St. Mary's City,Maryland

The brick Chapel at St. Mary's City, Maryland, built around 1667, would have been an impressive structure on a colonial frontier where all the other buildings were built only of wood. While the building is no longer extant, the bricks remaining in the buried foundations hold information about the technologies and materials used by brickmakers in the 17th-century Chesapeake region. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and petrographic analysis of thin sections were used to compare the Chapel bricks and other 17th-century bricks and tiles from several Chesapeake contexts to locally available clay sources. While the composition of the Chapel bricks is generally consistent with that of clays available in southern Maryland, these historic materials could not be linked to any one deposit, and may reflect the mixing of clays from multiple sources. In contrast, building materials from other 17th-century buildings at St. Mary's City could be more precisely “matched” to specific local clay deposits. This paper reports on our initial investigations toward understanding the technology of the Chapel bricks and their relationship to other bricks from St. Mary's City.     

Production centers of cooking pots in Iron Age Judah

This paper will present and discuss a multifaceted research project dealing with the production of cooking pots during the Iron Age II (ca. 1,000–586 BCE) Judah (modern Israel). In particular the new compositional analysis of 541 cooking vessels from 11 sites in Iron Age Judah will be presented. The study employs petrographic and chemical (NAA) analysis. The results of this ongoing research have already produced interesting information about production centers and movements of cooking pots in Iron Age II Judah. Apparently, the vast majority of the cooking pots sampled were made of a similar type of clay, related to terra rossa soil. This is true also for sites in the northern Negev and Judean Desert, where the type of soil was not available in the region of the sites. Furthermore, many of the cooking pots distributed around Judah were made in Jerusalem according to a well-located chemical profile (JleB). Other groups may represent Judean Shephelah production centers as the Lachish area as well as production centers in southern Israel or ancient Edom. The implications of the importation patterns of cooking pots by peripheral Judean sites will be discussed.     

故宫博物院旧藏漆器文物中漆灰材质的科学研究

漆灰的修复是漆器文物修复工作的重要组成部分。为揭示故宫博物院旧藏漆器3种典型漆灰的材料构成及特点,以及为漆器修复工作提供科技支持,研究结合X射线荧光光谱、微区X射线衍射、红外光谱、纤维显微镜观测、热裂解-气相色谱/质谱联用等技术,综合分析了3种典型漆灰所含无机及有机原材料。研究结果表明：明代古梅花蕉叶式琴漆灰所用无机材料是动物角灰或骨灰及少量黏土,胶结材料则由中国大漆及少量植物油组成;清代黑漆描金大宝座漆灰的无机材料为含有方解石的黏土,胶结材料为熟桐油、猪血的混合物,此外,样品中还含有麻类纤维,为宝座木胎与漆灰层之间所裱麻布,宝座漆灰不但能提供平整髹漆表面,而且还对麻布有加固定型作用;清代黑漆地填金字张廷玉书圣训天伦对联漆灰的无机材料为黏土,胶结材料则为熟桐油、猪血的混合物。研究所用分析方法体系可实现漆灰原材料,特别是有机胶结材料的准确识别。3种典型漆灰的选材特点与中国古代漆器,特别是明清时期家具、器物制作用料传统相吻合,研究结果可直接应用于漆器文物修复方案的制定。     

The application of Mössbauer spectroscopy to the characterisation of western mediterranean obsidian

Iron-57 Mössbauer absorption spectra have been measured for samples of obsidian from known geological flows and from archaeological site material from the western Mediterranean region. Of the four main sources available to prehistoric man it is possible to distinguish Sardinian (SA) and Pantellerian obsidian from Lipari obsidian on the basis of differences in the local atomic surroundings of iron atoms, as determined from the Mössbauer spectra. There is, however, some overlap between Lipari and Pontine Island obsidians. The Gabellotto flow on Lipari is readily identified through the presence of magnetite inclusions. The ratio of ferric to ferrous ions is found to be much higher in the surface layers (< 60 μm) than in the bulk obsidian as detected using Mössbauer backscattering.     

Is X-ray diffraction able to distinguish between animal and human bones?

The possibility of determining the human or animal origin of bones from the lattice parameters of their inorganic bioapatite phase, when subjected to a high temperature treatment using the powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique, has been explored on a wide number of specimens. Forty-two animal bones were treated in a furnace at 1100 °C for 36 min and compared to 53 cremated human bones from a range of ancient necropolises. The X-ray diffraction patterns of bioapatite were simulated using both monoclinic P21/b and hexagonal P63/m structures to verify any occurrence of phase transformation and any difference in the lattice parameters due to the model. It was determined that the differences between the a-axis and c-axis of the monoclinic and hexagonal lattice were unimportant. Some outlying values were revealed to be caused by the presence of chlorine ions diffused into the apatite structure increasing its average unit cell values. Nevertheless, our results clearly show that in terms of lattice parameters the variability of human specimens are completely overlapped by the non-human variability making the use of XRD in order to distinguish animal from human bones questionable.