From Bells to Cannon – The Beginnings of Archaeological Chemistry in the Eighteenth Century

This paper attempts to track the history of the chemical analysis of archaeological copper alloys back beyond the accepted origins of archaeometallurgy, and even before the pioneering work of Martin Heinrich Klaproth, as identified by Earle Cayley. It would appear that the chemical analysis of copper metal was developed in Revolutionary France around 1790 to enable the estimation of the amount of tin in the alloy as a response to the need to convert church bells into cannon. What is perhaps remarkable to our eyes, however, is that this group of scientists (including Mongez, Darcet and Dizé), who were the leading chemists of their day, were also interested in the analysis of archaeological metals. This is further evidence for the blossoming of the age of scientific enlightenment, when, shortly after the development of gravimetric methods of analysis, the entire contents of the ‘cabinets of curiosities’ were the subject of scientific study by the leading savants of the day.