Croatian Appoxiomenos alloy composition and lead provenance study

An ancient bronze statue of an athlete with a strigil (known as Apoxiomenos) – was raised from the north Adriatic Sea in 1999. In order to help to determine its place and date of manufacture various scientific techniques were used. ¹⁴C dating performed by the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) on the organic material found inside the statue gave calibrated dates between 100 B.C. and 250 A.D. Non-destructive analysis performed by portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) system and external beam Particle Induced X-Ray Emission (PIXE) spectroscopy could not provide representative results for metal alloy composition due to the electrochemical deterioration of the surface of bronze in seawater. This was observed by the analysis of alloy cross-sections performed by the proton microprobe. The analysis showed much higher lead concentrations on the surface of the bronze than inside, confirming that realistic alloy composition can be only performed on samples taken from at least 0.6 mm below the surface. Subsequent micro-PIXE analysis on metal cross-section showed inhomogeneous lead concentrations between 1 and 12%. Lead isotope analysis for provenance investigation has been done on 15 samples using Multi Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). Analysis showed that lead isotope composition is consistent with some of the lead ores originating either from the Eastern Alps or from Sardinia. Altogether, the results lead to the conclusion that the statue is not of a Greek origin, but most probable it is a Roman copy of the Greek original.     

Rare models: Roger Casement,the Amazon,and the ethnographic picturesque

In 1910 Roger Casement was sent by the British government to investigate the alleged humanitarian abuses of the Peruvian Amazon Company in the Putumayo, a disputed border zone in North West Amazonia. Casement brought more than verbal and written testimony back to London. On 26 June, some six months after he returned from the Amazon, Casement collected two Amerindian boys – Omarino and Ricudo – from Southampton docks. This paper will reconstruct the brief period that these young men spent in Britain in the summer of 1911 and assess, in particular, to what extent they were treated as ‘exhibits’ by Casement, who not only introduced them to leading members of the British establishment but also arranged for them to be painted and photographed following contemporary ethnographic conventions.     

An X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) investigation in human and animal fossil bones from Holocene to Middle Triassic

We examined by Rietveld refinement of X-ray Diffraction patterns a series of 61 human and animal fossil bones in an age range from present time to Middle Triassic (around 245 Ma). This approach, supplemented by elemental analysis according to X-ray Fluorescence, has permitted to obtain a quantitative evaluation of the mineralogical phases in the specimens, thus allowing to reconstruct the mineralization process involved. Concerning the apatite phase, after adopting a monoclinic geometry for the unit cell, the method permits to determine with fair degree of precision the unit cell volume, which is found to decrease in relatively short geological times as a function of the fluorine substitution process for the hydroxyl group –OH. After excluding the role of a high-temperature fire treatment to the bones, it is found that a certain linear correlation may exist over the geological time scale involved between the age of the specimen and the average crystallite size. This observation permits to use the XRD pattern as an evaluation of the age of the fossil, although the stratigraphic observations, where available, remain as the main reliable source for dating such biomaterials. The uncertainty related to this age estimation may be hardly better than 15–20% in absolute, because of various assumptions involved in the XRD methodology used and in the variability of the burial environment that may be subjected to discontinuous changes over the very long time of deposition.     

Photographing dispossession, forgetting solidarity: waiting for social justice in Wentworth, South Africa

South Africans today inhabit a fragmented and discontinuous landscape, often despite their most cosmopolitan intentions. Grounded in the Coloured neighbourhood of Wentworth in Durban, this paper asks how remains of the past appear as differently temporalised artefacts, some buried in the archaic past and others more readily used to critique the present. In particular, I explore photographs of inmates of a concentration camp from 1902, township youth appropriating a specific commons in the early 1980s, black political photography from the late 1980s, and film wrestling with the ambiguities of post-apartheid political life in a Coloured neighbourhood next to an oil refinery. What unites these moments is not just a meta-theoretical concern with photography as both documentary and aesthetic, but the specific political uses of images, exemplified by the work of two black political photographers. Their practice provides cues for situating these other photographs in a long century of multiple dispossessions. The paper explores when and how photographs might shock the viewer into recognising resemblances, connections and potential solidarities, not just with the past, but with subaltern critique of racial space and subjectivity in the present. I suggest how we might view photographs from various moments relationally, to understand how, in one corner of contemporary South Africa, people continue to wait for justice despite uncertainty and official dissimulation, in a state of anticipatory frustration.     

虚拟现实——秦兵马俑遗址与文物的数字化保护与展示

虚拟化技术试用于秦始皇兵马俑坑和兵马俑文物的展示,取得了较好的效果。其方法是利用全景摄影,设计和实施虚拟之环游。通过对一件跪射俑三维扫描进行虚拟三维场景处理的实践操作,可看出这一技术有很好的发展前景。     

The multivariate statistical analysis and XRD analysis of pottery at Xigongqiao site

A series of pottery samples excavated from the Xigongqiao site in Tengzhou city of Shandong province was determined using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Together with excavation data and archaeological analysis, the potential for provenance and technology of unearthed ancient pottery was studied by using multivariate statistical analysis and X-ray powder diffraction pattern (XRD) analysis. In order to characterize and classify these earthenware samples, the major and minor/trace element concentrations were studied with both cluster analysis and principal component analysis. The results showed that there were three different groups in cluster analysis dendrogram in good correlation with their colors. This indicated that the potteries were made from clays of different composition. These results were in agreement with the results of principal component analysis. XRD analysis further assessed the validity of multivariate statistical analysis.     

中华民国三十四年中央银行纸币印刷颜料无损研究

法币在中国货币史特别是近代货币史上有着重要地位。1935年11月至1948年8月间,先后发行了15种从"壹分"到"壹萬圆"不同面额的法币,由中外十六家不同印刷公司承印,版别多达百余种。本研究利用超景深三维视频显微镜、激光显微共聚焦拉曼光谱仪和便携式X射线荧光光谱仪,对11枚1945年(中华民国三十四年)中央银行发行的壹仟圆法币的印刷颜料进行了无损研究。结果表明,红色部分(印章、冠字号、纹饰等)普遍使用了有机合成染料系列颜料红PR,而蓝色、绿色、棕色部分普遍使用了普鲁士蓝、铅铬黄和炭黑等颜料进行调配呈色。这些信息能够为纸币类文物的鉴别、保护修复以及相关研究提供依据。     

唐代妇女发饰的技术分析与研究

近几年来为配合基本建设,在西安市长安区紫薇田园都市清理了一批唐墓,陆续出土了一些妇女发饰,其中有镂空鎏金花鸟纹银钗、银钗、鎏金花铜簪及散落的鎏金铜饰残片等。为了解当时的制作工艺及技术,对其进行了X射线能谱分析(EDS)和金相显微结构分析(SEM)。分析表明:1、2、5、6、7、8号样皆为银铜合金,3、4号样为铜合金;1、5、6、7、8号样的金相结构表现为重压冷锻组织,2、3号为退火组织。此项分析可为科学分析资料较少的金银器的研究提供参考和帮助。     

Photographic methods to detect colourants in archaeological textiles

Protocols for photography of archaeological textiles to detect components of differing chemistry that are indicative of colourants were developed. Parameters of light source, camera distance, filter type, film type, film speed, and aperture size were evaluated for visible, UV-reflectance, UV-fluorescence, and infrared photography. Using these techniques facilitates selective sampling for further analysis that maximizes critical data acquisition while minimizing destruction of the artefact. Hence, forensic photography of archaeological perishable materials should be regarded as a precursor to destructive analytical methods.