REPORT Neurology of the Arts Mansell Bequest Symposium at the Medical Society of London 30 April–1 May 2001

Philosophical instruments were designed to examine phenomena experimentally, rather than by naturalistic observation alone. In the nineteenth century, some instruments were called philosophical toys because they provided popular amusement as well as experimental assistance. They were applied widely in natural philosophy, but attention here is directed particularly to manipulations of perceived space and time and their influence on art. One of the earliest instruments, which had a profound impact on art as well as science, was the camera obscura. It assisted image formation in art before it was applied as an analogy to the eye at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Later philosophical toys were used to address visual perception of motion and depth. Development was initially driven by the need for stimulus control so that the methods of physics could be applied to the study of perceptual phenomena. The principal instruments were invented in the first half of the nineteenth century, and they consisted of simple contrivances that manipulated time and space in ways that had not previously been appreciated. They included thaumatropes, phenakistoscopes, stroboscopes, anorthoscopes, stereoscopes, tachistoscopes, and chronoscopes. Several of these philosophical toys proved to be phenomenally popular, particularly when combined with photography.     

The Legacy of Nineteenth-century Replicas for Object Cultural Biographies: Lessons in Duplication from 1830s Fife

The St Andrews Sarcophagus and Norrie's Law hoard are two of the most important surviving Pictish relics from early medieval Scotland. The entanglement of their later biographies is also of international significance in its own right. Soon after discovery in nineteenth-century Fife, both sets of objects were subject, in 1839, to an exceptionally precocious, documented programme of replication through the enlightened auspices of an under-appreciated antiquarian, George Buist. This well-evidenced case study highlights how and why replicas, things that are widely prevalent in Europe and beyond, are a ‘thick’ and relatively unexplored seam of archaeological material culture that we ignore at our peril. These particular replications also offer new insights into the vision, intellectual and practical energies of early antiquarian societies, and their web of connections across Britain and Ireland.     

A cohort of trees,photographs, scientists,an artist and a curator: the collaborative study of environmental change

ABSTRACT

I explore how a historic image archive can be re-worked through collaborative artistic-scientific practice, and how photography can be ‘re-performed’ as a strategy to observe an environmental change. The focus is on a project by the photographer Chrystel Lebas, who between 2011 and 2017 worked in collaboration with botanists from the Natural History Museum, London. The collaborators used historic and contemporary photographs for seasonal observations in the field. Their specific interest was in the potential for using historic visual ecological records to investigate environmental change as observed now.

The paper explores the hybridization of technical, aesthetic and embodied knowledge, the application of montage and the tacit creation of a visual framework for observation. It draws attention to the potential inflexibility in interpretation inherent in the accepted systematic practice of placing ecological records within a herbarium in a natural history collection. Secondly, it illustrates the neglected potential of photographic collections within scientific research.     

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Survey with Commercial-Grade Instruments: A Case Study from the Eastern Ḫabur Archaeological Survey,Iraq

Low-altitude photography in archaeology is now common practice at the scale of excavations; however, landscape-scale applications are a relatively new endeavor with promising analytical potential. From 2014–2016, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a mounted camera was used to document sites recorded as part of the Eastern ?abur Archaeological Survey (E?AS), an archaeological reconnaissance project in western Dohuk Province, Iraqi Kurdistan. The E?AS team documented over 70 archaeological sites with the UAV, from single-phase artifact scatters, to archaeological remains with standing architecture, to tells that cover more than 30 hectares. Representative examples from this survey are presented here to outline the project workflow and primary output data layers, including digital orthomosaics and digital elevation models. The quality and utility of results are then assessed in relationship to available satellite-based data. Methods for analysis and interpretation are then considered to demonstrate applications in landscape archaeology. An A) orthomosaic and B) shaded relief model with surface collection area (in red) of site EHAS-C045 created from photographs taken from a UAV.     

An archaeometric study of the Konya basin metallic ware through FTIR and XRD analysis with chemometrics: Central Anatolian Early Bronze Age ceramics

Fourier-transform infrared, X-ray diffraction and chemometrics were used to characterize the mineralogical composition and firing conditions of 59 Early Bronze Age ceramic sherds from the Konya Plain (Turkey). These include the Konya Basin Metallic Ware (KBMW) and a control group of contemporary local products. The analysis indicates significant differences in mineral inclusions and firing temperatures, with KBMW generally being fired above 800°C and characterized by standardized fabric recipes. Assessed together with other published evidence, these results indicate a high degree of specialization in the production of KBMW ceramic assemblages in central Anatolia during the third millennium BCE.     

Obtaining meaningful informed consent: preliminary results of a study to develop visual informed consent forms with children

This pilot study explores children's understanding of informed consent (IC) and the potential of participatory visual methods for improving the IC process. Strategies used to improve the IC process have generated mixed evidence as to their ability to increase understanding and willingness to participate among potential research participants. Two workshops with 13 children aged 8–12 years were held to discuss the content of IC forms, particularly confidentiality and voluntary participation, and the children took photographs to represent these concepts. Simplified written IC forms generated boredom, disengagement, and/or anxiety for some children. Preliminary results of this pilot study indicate the potential to enhance the IC process by using participatory visual methods with children to make visual IC forms.     

Archaeometrical characterization of pigments and paintings on Pre-Hispanic pottery from the regions of Fiambalá and Chaschuil (Catamarca,Argentina)*

The results of an analysis of pigments used in slips and designs deployed in ceramic assemblages recovered from archaeological sites located in different environments, expressing the socio-historical process developed in the regions of Fiambalá and Chaschuil (Catamarca, Argentina) during the last 1500 years are presented. The sample, formed by fragments of different ceramic styles and natural pigments, was analysed via Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Results indicate the continuity in use of certain pigments (mainly hematite for red hues and Mn oxides in combination with magnetite for black paints) within the different socio-political organizations that inhabited the region from the first to the 14th centuries ce , in spite of the diverse shades of colour, which suggests an intentional search linked with their cultural conventions. For the Inca Period, this scenery of continuities in minerals employed for reds and blacks is complemented by the use of new compounds (Ti oxide, apatite and gypsum) in order to generate the ‘cream’ tones applied as slips, all of which have not been identified for previous moments.     

基于X射线断层扫描技术的金漆葫芦式盒工艺研究

对漆器文物的内在结构及表面漆层的观察分析,是研究文物病害形成原因和传统制作工艺的重要途径。通过X射线成像技术,可在不损伤文物的情况下,观察文物内在的纹理结构,分析其原工艺制作方法。故本研究通过对文物X射线图像进行解析,分析金漆漆盒的胎体结构和文物的伤况成因,并对比文献记载中漆器胎底制作的差异性,尝试通过重构3D模型图片的方式直观展现文物木胎结构。研究漆器制作工艺和表层病害,有利于分析漆器文物制作工艺对文物病害的影响。相关的研究成果在日后文物保护中可以有针对性地用于分析文物伤况并制定科学严谨的修复方案,还可为以后的文物研究和工艺分析提供资料。     

Microchemical and crystallographic analysis of human bones from Nasca,Peru. A possible method of direct dating of archaeological skeletal material

This paper provides two archaeometric equations obtained by crystal–chemical parameters for dating human bone samples from the archaeological site of Nasca, Peru. Based on radiocarbon dating, the burials span from 500 BC to AD 1000. Crystal–chemical modifications in bone hydroxylapatite over time were compared with a twentieth century skeleton from Italy. Chemical analysis was carried out by means of electron microprobe along a profile from the periosteal to the endosteal border of the midshaft of four human femurs. The results indicate that the Ca/P ratio is linearly correlated with time according to the equation t=7880.68Ca/P−12805.90 (r=0.97; r²=0.95). Bone apatite X-ray powder diffraction analysis showed a systematic increase in the (002) reflection intensity with time, according to the equation t=250.49h/a−1961.86 (r=0.98; r²=0.97). The two independent archaeometric equations permit good accuracy in dating osteoarchaeological remains from the south coast area of Peru. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can trace elements in fossils provide information about palaeodiet?

The main aim of this study is to try to see if, despite the diagenetic changes undergone by the fossil bones buried in Venta Micena (Orce, Spain), the concentration of trace elements permits the differentiation of particular groups. It is possible that some chemical elements allow us to identify different dietary groups in accord with their archaeological context. Different multivariant methods—correlation, principal component analysis and cluster analysis—were applied to the data, and in all cases the results show that two elements (Ba and Zn) seem able to discriminate between groups with different diets. In this sense, diagenesis cannot explain all the variability found in the concentrations of trace elements in fossils from the Orce region. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.