青海大通县出土汉代玻璃的研究

本文共对12件玻璃样品进行化学组成分析.其中,部分样品还进行了密度测定,X 射线衍射分析和显微镜观察.此外,还对一颗黄色玻璃珠的表面层进行 SEM-EDX 分析.结果表明,该玻璃珠表面有金箔涂层.根据分析结果,青海大通县出土玻璃的基础成分可归为三类,即铅钡玻璃(Na_2O-PbO-BaO-SiO_2系统玻璃),钠钙玻璃和钾硅玻璃(K_2O-SiO_2系统)。此外,还对玻璃的来源进行了探讨.     

A technological study of ancient faience from Egypt

The chemical compositions and microstructures of some 35 faience objects from Egypt spanning the period from the Middle Kingdom through to the 22nd dynasty are determined using analytical scanning electron microscopy. Replicate faience beads glazed in the laboratory using the efflorescence and cementation methods are similarly investigated. In efflorescence glazing, there appears to be preferential efflorescence of soda over potash, and in cementation glazing, preferential take up of potash over soda into the glaze. These data are then used to try to infer the raw materials and methods of glazing employed in the production of the ancient faience. The glaze/glass phases present in the faience differ significantly in composition from that of New Kingdom glass. This could be due either to the use of different plant ashes or to changes in the composition of the plant ashes during the production of faience and/or glass. Although it is only rarely possible to determine with certainty whether ancient faience was glazed by efflorescence, cementation or application, the observed microstructures provide an indication of the approach adopted to achieve desired performance characteristics such as strength.     

Transition in the use of cobalt-blue colorant in the New Kingdom of Egypt

Cobalt-blue colorant was first used in the 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom of Egypt. The source of this cobalt was cobaltiferous alum from the Western Oases of Egypt. The use of this alum, especially in glass, was suddenly limited at the end of the 18th Dynasty. There is little evidence of the production of cobalt-blue glass in the Ramesside Period (the 19th–20th Dynasties) in the New Kingdom of Egypt. In this study, we brought a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to two archaeological sites located in the Memphite region and used it for onsite analyses of Ramesside cobalt blue-colored glasses and faiences. This method revealed that the compositional characteristics of the cobalt-blue colorant in these Ramesside glasses and faiences is different from the colorant derived from cobaltiferous alum used in the 18th Dynasty, based on the comparison of transition metal composition and alumina content with those of the cobalt blue-colored artifacts from the 18th Dynasty. This result suggests that a new cobalt source other than cobaltiferous alum from the Western Oases was utilized in Egypt during the Ramesside Period.     

河南三门峡虢国墓出土西周——春秋时期费昂斯珠的分析研究

河南三门峡虢国墓是西周晚期至春秋初期的大型邦国墓地,其中M2009的六璜组玉佩上使用了费昂斯珠,作为人工制品的费昂斯珠,其材料组成和工艺特点显示了古代科技水平,利用科学分析揭示其科学价值很有意义。本研究运用扫描电子显微镜(SEM-EDX)、激光拉曼光谱(Raman)分析了四件三门峡虢国墓M2009出土的费昂斯珠的微观结构和成分。研究发现,四件费昂斯珠采用直接施釉法,釉层使用了铜离子着色,可能使用了含氯和铜的矿物。费昂斯珠的内外表层还发现了羟基磷灰石和朱砂,来自于墓主遗骸和墓葬环境。     

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.     

湖北宜昌万福垴遗址出土费昂斯珠科技分析与研究

湖北宜昌万福垴遗址是西周中晚期至春秋时期的以楚文化为主的遗存,以该遗址M8出土的费昂斯(faience)珠为研究对象,以期通过分析其成分和结构特征并讨论其工艺特征,丰富对长江中下游地区该时期费昂斯的相关认识。本研究使用扫描电子显微镜,分析结果显示费昂斯制品以富钾费昂斯及混合碱费昂斯为主。再依据以往发表的西周时期费昂斯制品的科技研究,结合考古发掘相关材料,试图从费昂斯器物使用方式的角度,窥视其在古人精神文明进程中的角色,反观费昂斯在中原地区的发展脉络。     

An early Iron Age assemblage of faience beads from Ashkelon,Israel: chemical composition and manufacturing process

The microstructure and chemical composition of eight faience beads from an early Iron Age (12th century BCE) assemblage found in the ancient city port of Ashkelon (Israel) are determined by means of FTIR spectrometry, pXRF, microRaman and SEM-EDS analysis. The results are compared with published data of Egyptian and Near Eastern artifacts. Each sample exhibits a hue which is obtained by adding a specific colorant to the glazing mixture. A new gray chalcopyrite-manganese-based colorant was identified. Cementation glazing was most likely used in the manufacturing process of the specimens analyzed, except for the blue bead, which is an Egyptian blue frit. The results suggest that these objects represent a unique assemblage, quite different from contemporary Egyptian and Near Eastern materials, and provide new information regarding the Iron Age faience evidence in the southern Levant.     

The composition of the soda-rich and mixed alkali plant ashes used in the production of glass

Soda-rich plant ashes have been used in the Near East and Egypt in the production of glass and faience from the 4th millennium BC onwards, and mixed alkali plant ashes have been similarly used in western Europe during the 2nd and first half of the 1st millennia BC. In the production of these ashes, the plants of interest are salt resistant, halophytic plants of the Chenopodiaceae family, growing in coastal, salt marsh and desert regions. A primary criterion in selecting ashes for glass and faience production is that the alkalis are predominantly in the form of carbonates, bicarbonates and hydroxides rather than either chlorides or sulphates. In the current paper, previously published data for such ashes are brought together and re-assessed, and new analytical data are presented for ashes produced from plants collected in Egypt, Greece and the UK. For the ashes produced from Salsola kali plants collected from Greece and the UK, the soda to potash ratios (0.3–1.8) do not show any systematic differences between the regions in which the plant was growing, but instead reflect the fact that this species favours the accumulation of K⁺ over Na⁺ ions. Further, the results suggest that S. kali could have been the source of the mixed alkali ashes used in western Europe, if the ashes had first been treated in some way in order to reduce their lime-plus-magnesia contents.     

NEW DATA ON THE TECHNOLOGY OF FAIENCE PRODUCTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE

New data on faience production technologies in central Europe come from an analysis of 12 faience beads from an Early Bronze Age cemetery in Poland. The beads were tested with the EPMA method. Altogether 65 measurements were made. In terms of morphology, the artifacts are all the same, but they differ in microstructure and chemical composition. For some a mixed alkali flux was used, for others soda-rich plant ashes. Even so, all of the beads seem to have been made from local raw materials in central Europe (soda-rich plant ashes could have come from plants growing near one of the mainland salt sources, which are frequent, for example, in south-eastern Poland).     

Natron as a flux in the early vitreous materials industry: sources,beginnings and reasons for decline

Natron deposits, the best known of which being those at Wadi Natrun in Egypt, have been used as the flux in the production of vitreous materials from the early 4th millennium BC onwards. In the present paper, the history of the use of natron as a flux is traced from its beginnings in the glaze of Badarian steatite beads, through its use in glass production starting in the 1st millennium BC, until its apparent shortage during the 7th to 9th centuries AD, and its subsequent replacement by plant ash during the 9th century AD. Documentary evidence for possible natron sources in Egypt, including the Wadi Natrun, and around the eastern Mediterranean is summarised, and the results of recent fieldwork at the Wadi Natrun and at al-Barnuj in the Western Nile Delta are presented. The possible reasons for the apparent shortage of natron from 7th to 9th centuries AD and its subsequent replacement by plant ash as the flux used in glass production during the 9th century AD are then considered. These include the possibility that, because of the massive scale of glass production, the demand for natron exceeded its supply; the possible effect of climatic changes; and the potentially disruptive role of political events in the Wadi Natrun–Delta region.