SEM,EPR and ToF-SIMS analyses applied to unravel the technology employed for pottery-making by pre-colonial Indian tribes from Pantanal,Brazil

The present work aims at elucidating the technology applied in the fabrication of ceramic objects by the ancient ceramists that inhabited the western border of Pantanal, Mato-Grosso do Sul, with the help of a multidisciplinary approach making use of chemical and physical methods of analysis. The potshards under study show the presence of different types of additives, as determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). The dispersion of the additives within the ceramic matrix was also addressed by SEM, which shed light on the mounting technique used by the potters to assemble the ceramic vessels. Moreover, the tensile strength conferred to the pottery by the use of a specific type of additive was evaluated by applying a mechanical test. These results were correlated with the firing temperature of the potshards, determined by means of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR).     

Romita pottery revisited: a reassessment of the provenance of ceramics from Colonial Mexico by LA-MC-ICP-MS

The origin of Romita pottery has been a controversial topic during the last three decades of Colonial Mexico archaeological studies. Lead isotopic analyses of glaze coatings of Spanish and Mexican pottery, and Romita ceramics unearthed from the archaeological site of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City provide evidence that support a Mexican origin.     

小议郑州“河一”铁官铭画像灰陶灶

1989年郑州市博物馆收藏了一件汉代"河一"铁官铭画像灰陶灶。本文根据灶类明器的演变,画像风格以及铭文考察,将这件器物的年代定在东汉早中期。     

河南焦作白庄汉墓M121、M122发掘简报

2009年8月焦作市文物工作队在焦作白庄墓群发掘M121和M122两座汉墓。M121和M122两耳室相连。墓中各出土陶仓楼及其他陶器组合,对研究焦作地区汉墓分期和陶仓楼的排序具有重要的意义。     

Explaining Shell-Tempered Pottery in Prehistoric Eastern North America

Explanations for the rise in frequency of shell-tempered pottery in the Eastern United States have vacillated between historical and functional accounts. Using evolutionary theory, the historical records of first appearance and diffusion are woven with physical properties of shell-tempered pottery that may have led to its selection. An appreciation of the scale at which change occurs and the units of analysis most appropriate for understanding that change is necessary for an explanation that can account for the widespread use of shell-tempering and the more-or-less coincident rise in its frequency. A hypothesis with empirical consequences is offered as a starting point for understanding this phenomenon.     

The Women of Brassempouy: A Century of Research and Interpretation

  The discovery of female figurines at Brassempouy in the 1890's would launch more than a century of debate and interpretation concerning Paleolithic representations of women. The figurines emerged from the ground into a colonial intellectual and socio-political context nearly obsessed with matters of race. This early racial interpretive frame would only be replaced in the mid 20th century, when prehistorians turned to questions such as fertility and womanhood. The first figurines were discovered in 1892 under rather tortured circumstances in which their very ownership was the subject of a heated dispute between Edouard Piette and Emile Cartailhac. Their toxic relationship would lead Piette, in his subsequent excavations, to be extremely precise about issues of stratigraphic and spatial provenience. Piette's publications and archives enabled Henri Delporte to confirm the Gravettian attribution of the figurines and have allowed the present author to create a map of their spatial distribution within the site. Technological and microscopic analysis of the Brassempouy figurines resolves some lingering questions about the sex of certain of the figurines and suggests an original context of figurine fabrication and the abandonment of unsuccessful sculpting attempts.

北宋官窑形成的文献考察

北宋官窑客观存在,地点在汴京。其性质属政和三年礼制局成立后,由礼制局制造所所辖的烧造陶瓷祭器(包括日用器)的机构,其产品为政和年间“新成礼器”的一部分。     

Investigating ancient technology and ceramic composition at Al-Khidr site (Failaka Island,Kuwait): Geochemical analyses of Bronze Age pottery by pXRF and thin-section petrographic analyses

Pottery assemblages from the site of Al-Khidr on Failaka Island, Kuwait, were analysed in order to reconstruct the chemical composition of Bronze Age wares and to build a mineralogical database of Bronze Age pottery dated from Failaka Periods 1–3B (2000–1650 BCE). A total of 145 ceramic sherds from Al-Khidr, as well as reference groups, were analysed by non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry. Preliminarily petrographic thin-section analysis was applied to four samples to reconstruct possible clay paste recipes and to identify raw materials. The results indicate that geochemical analyses can successfully distinguish subgroups within a typological category of ceramic assemblages. The results identified two subgroups within the Al-Khidr typological category: the Dilmun Barbar tradition and the Mesopotamian tradition. Future comparative compositional studies can be conducted to explore other aspects of craft specialisation, such as ceramic technological choices and possibly the influence of sociopolitical units.     

Other ways to examine the finances behind the birth of Classical Greece

Although the birth of Classical Greece is often attributed to the constitutional reforms of Cleisthenes (508/507 BCE), the achievement of an economically minded government under the Peisistratid tyrant Hippias (527–510 BCE) potentially paved the way by advancing Athenian silver for exportation in international trade. It is proposed here that new silver technology, which initiated the transition from acquiring silver from ‘dry’ silver ores to silver-bearing lead ores, was introduced to Greece during the time of the Peisistratids (561–510 BCE). Massive exploitation of silver-bearing lead ores at Laurion in Attica, which later financed the construction of a war navy, appears evident in the lead pollution records of Greenland ice, lead isotopic analyses of sixth-century BCE Attic silver coins and late Iron Age Levantine hacksilver, and is reflected in the numbers of lead votive figurines at sanctuaries in Sparta. Against the backdrop of the threat of war with Persia and an imminent Spartan invasion which resulted in the overthrow of Hippias (510 BCE), it is considered that a political transition occurred because Greece was both geologically and politically disposed to adopt this labour-intensive silver technology which helped to initiate, fund and protect the radical social experiment that became known as Classical Greece.     

环十二烷在彩绘织物湿洗中的临时性封护工艺研究

彩绘颜料与织物通过粘合剂相结合的方式决定了彩绘部分的不稳定性,大多彩绘织物都因此经不起湿洗.为此,本实验对环十二烷在彩绘织物湿洗中对彩绘部分的临时性封护加固处理的可行性、效果和安全性进行了研究.通过正交实验法,筛选出了环十二烷的最佳施加工艺条件:双面、刷涂、一遍、环十二烷加热至62℃,并对与环十二烷升华速率相关的环境条件进行了对比研究.实验证明,环十二烷对织物强度以及纤维的微观分子结构等方面没有明显影响,环十二烷在彩绘织物上的应用是安全的.实验启示,本实验的研究思路不仅适用于彩绘织物,对其它类型纺织品文物甚至其它文物如纸张、字画、壁画等的保护修复也有借鉴意义.