M.s. Tite

University of Oxford | OX · School of Archaeology

Lustre is a decoration consisting of a surface layer of silver and copper metal nanoparticles, a few hundreds of nanometres thick and incorporated into the glaze. It shows a colourful metallic and iridescent appearance which makes use of the quantum confined optical response of the metallic nanoparticles. Three apparently unrelated lustre decoratio...

The Nabataeans, who founded the city of Petra (southern Jordan) in the late first millennium BCE, are noted for the production of a distinctive very fine pottery with painted decoration and a wall thickness sometimes as little as 1.5 mm; this pottery appears largely locally made and not widely circulated. Using a combination of OM, SEM with attache...

The very rare find of the relic of the original lustre pigment attached to the glazed surface of a sherd of 13th century ad Raqqa type lustreware from Syria has been analysed using a combination of analytical scanning electron microscopy (SEM), micro-X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS). The composition of the pi...

Previous research has shown that Iznik glazes are characterized by low potash and magnesia contents. It was therefore suggested that the flux used was either a purified plant ash or some unidentified mineral source of soda. More recently, as a result of the detection of small, but significant, amounts of boron and lithium in Byzantine glasses from...

Lustre is a decoration consisting of a few hundreds of nanometres thick surface layer of silver and copper metal nanoparticles incorporated into the glaze. Polychrome lustreware with several combinations of colours and shines was produced in Abbasid Iraq in the 9th century AD. Three colour combinations, black plus red, white-silvery plus red-copper...

Rainsborough is 1 mile South of Charlton village, in the parish of Newbottle, S. Northants, 20 miles North of Oxford, (SP 526348). The camp lies at c . 480′ OD, and the area enclosed is c . 6·25 acres. It lies on the edge of a plateau: the approaches to it are flat on the north-east, east, south and south-west, but a gentle slope to the north, nort...

Lustre is a product of skilled artisans and its production was spread to different regions by the migration of artisans. Each lustre production has its own peculiarities not only in the composition and microstructure of the lustre but also in the paste and glaze compositions, processing and firing conditions. Syrian lustre is particularly interesti...

The microstructures of porcelain and stoneware bodies from north and south China, spanning the period from the Tang to the Ming dynasty (7th–17th centuries ad), were examined in polished sections in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) after etching the sections with hydrofluoric acid (HF). Mullite, present as fine, mainly elongated crystals, is th...

The microstructures and chemical compositions of stonepaste bodies from the Islamic Middle East, typically produced from a mixture of ten parts crushed quartz, one part crushed glass and one part white clay, are investigated using analytical scanning electron microscopy. For comparison, replicate stonepaste bodies are produced in the laboratory at...

During the 1980s, the late Alexander Kaczmarczyk undertook the analysis of some 1200 glazed Islamic ceramics from Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Syria spanning the period from the eighth to the 14th centuries ad, using a combination of XRF for the glazes, and AAS or PIXE for the bodies. The aim of the present paper is, first, to bring to the attention of re...

A broad selection of Roman lead-glazed pottery dating from the first century ad through the fifth century ad was studied to establish locations of workshops and to address their technology of production. The ceramic bodies were analysed by ICP–AES. In addition, lead isotope analysis was undertaken on a selection of glazes. These findings suggested...

Golden-like luster decorations on glazed ceramics from early Islamic times (9–12th centuries AD) consist of a nanocomposite submicrometric layer made of silver metal nanoparticles. The color and golden-like reflectivity of these decorations are dominated by the nonlinear optical response and Mie scattering of the silver nanoparticles. We demonstrat...

Analytical scanning electron microscopy was used to determine the microstructures and chemical compositions of some fifty Italian maiolica ceramics, together with a della Robbia terracotta panel, spanning the period from 13th to early 17th century AD, and thus establish the changes in the production technology that occurred during this period. The...

The relationship between crafts and history tells us much about ancient patterns of technology transfer.

Les rapports entre artisanat et histoire sont riches d'enseignements sur les modes anciens de transmission des techniques. Deux spécialistes de l'Université d'Oxford montrent ici quelle masse d'informations peut fournir un simple tesson: Robert B. Mason, en congé spécial du Royal Ontario Museum de Toronto, fait des recherches en vue d'un doctorat à...

The microstructures and chemical compositions of some 15 faience objects from Crete spanning the period from Middle Minoan IIIA through to Late Minoan IA are determined using analytical scanning electron microscopy. The Minoan faience is compared with replicate faience beads produced in the laboratory using various combinations of manganese, copper...

This article examines materials analysis in archaeology. It explains that the ultimate goal of materials analysis in archaeology is to understand the human exploitation of the environment in terms of raw materials and processes used in the production of artefacts from stone, ceramic, metal, and glass as well as from the full range of organic materi...

Replications of the lustre layers have been produced using laboratory-controlled conditions, based on a 13th century AD lustre recipe. The characteristics of the lustre layers obtained by using different paint and glaze compositions, thermal paths and atmospheres are summarised. The key parameters needed to reproduce the colours, composition and me...

This paper presents a study of a representative selection of lustre ceramics dating from the last quarter of the 10th century AD to the second half of the 13th century AD from Egypt, Syria and Iran. The study concentrates on the structure and chemistry of the lustre itself over the historical period considered and has found a number of significant...

The microstructures and chemical compositions of some 55 Egyptian blue and green frit samples from New Kingdom Egypt and 15th century BC Mesopotamia are determined using analytical scanning electron microscopy, the main focus being on frit cakes, powder residues, and frit vessel and bead fragments from one of the “factory areas” at Amarna in Middle...

In this paper the study of four significant lustre samples covering 9th century AD polychrome and 10th century AD monochrome lustre from Iraq is presented. The samples selected are representative of the earliest known lustre productions. The data obtained from the study of the medieval samples are compared to laboratory reproductions and gives impo...

The contribution of the physical sciences to the reconstruction of the production technology (i.e., processing of raw materials, forming, surface treatments and firing methods) for earthenwares, stonewares, porcelains and stonepaste bodies are summarized. The organization of production and the reasons for technological choice are considered. Proven...

Tin-based opacifiers (lead stannate yellow and tin oxide white) were first used in glass production for a short period in Europe from the second to the first centuries bc, and then again throughout the Roman and Byzantine Empires from the fourth century ad onwards. Tin oxide was also used in the production of Islamic opaque glazes from the ninth ce...

In this paper optical dating results for a range of British archaeological sediments are presented to illustrate the potential this method offers for archaeologists. The optical dating is shown to offer an absolute method for directly dating the deposition of sediments for an age range of approximately 1–300ka. Problems have been found with recuper...

Analysis has been conducted on 19 blue glasses from Amarna in Middle Egypt dated to around 1350 BC. The results suggest that these glasses fall into two distinct types: cobalt coloured glasses with a natron based alkali made from local Egyptian materials, and copper coloured glasses with a plant ash alkali, which follow a Mesopotamian tradition of...

In this paper we describe quantitative measurements on the thermoluminescence of many single grains, made with an imaging photon detector. In several of the sediments examined a few bright grains were found which had a high equivalent dose (ED). Physical measurements made on these grains using binocular microscopy and analytical scanning microscopy...

A multidisciplinary programme of research on the glazed ceramics of the Islamic world has been focused on questions of their dating, provenance and technology. One particular question has been the development of tin-opacified glazes, and the nature of glaze opacification generally in the Islamic world. The findings of the various studies combine to...

Transparent high lead and tin-opacified lead-alkali glazes have been extensively used throughout Europe and the Near East from their first appearance in the Roman era and the tenth- to eleventh-century Islamic world, respectively, up until the present day. Using, to a large extent, information which is widely scattered through a diverse range of li...

This paper is the text of the inaugural lecture given by the author in the Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre on 23 October 1990 following his appointment in October 1989 to the Edward Hall Chair of Archaeological Science, at the University of Oxford

Analyses by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry and atomic absorption spectrometry of 22 ceramic standards and sherds are compared. Further data from analyses of one of the ceramic standards analysed by both methods are also discussed. The results show that for most major elements, the methods are comparable, but that use of com...

THE thermal expansion method for determining firing temperatures1-3 is based on the assumption that, when clays are fired, shrinkage occurs as a result of various sintering processes such as vitrification. Consequently when a clay ceramic is heated up from room temperature (see Fig. 1) it typically exhibits a reversible expansion, characteristic of...

A multidisciplinary programme of research on Islamic pottery has been focused on questions of the dating, provenance and technology of Islamic pottery. One particular question has been the development of stonepaste, a material made primarily of crushed quartz with added frit-glass and clay. The combination of the different approaches of this study...

Buried pits and ditches can be located on archaeological sites using magnetic prospecting techniques (Aitken 1961) because the magnetic susceptibility of their IilIing is higher than that of the subsoil into which they are dug. Similarly roads can be located because the susceptibility of the subsoil material (e.g. gravel, rock fragments) with which...

ABSTRACTS A heating mechanism for the enhancement of the magnetic susceptibility of soils on archaeological sites is assumed. Data for the iron oxide concentration which is available for conversion to the strongly ferrimagnetic form is presented for soils derived from a wide range of geological strata. These data are then used, in conjunction with...

The microstructure and chemical composition of a range of early vitreous materials, principally from Egypt and dating from mid-second millennium B.C. onwards, have been examined in polished section in a scanning electron microscope with attached X-ray spectrometer. Faience is defined as a material with a quartz core which contains varying amounts o...

The microstructures of faience, produced in the laboratory by the direct application of the glazing mixture (both in the raw state and in the form of prefired and ground frit) and by the efflorescence and cementation glazing methods, have been studied in polished sections in the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The microstructures observed were...

Optical and scanning electron microscopy, electron microprobe analysis and X-ray diffraction are used to determine the composition and microstructure of the bodies and glazes of Chinese porcelain of the Yuan dynasty from Jingdezhen, as well as samples of porcelain-stone and glaze-stone from the same region. The original mineralogical compositions o...

Eight sherds of ninth–tenth century ad Abbaesid blue-and-white glazed earthenware, excavated in 1931 at Hira in western Iraq, were analysed using, variously, quantitative wavelength-dispersive spectrometry (WDS) and energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) in association with scanning electron microscopes (SEM), and semi-quantitative X-ray fluorescence...

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, halophy...

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 pr...

Egyptian blue, which was the first synthetic pigment to be used in antiquity, consists of crystals of calcium-copper tetrasilicate (i.e. cuprorivaite (CaCuSi4O10)). The physical processes associated with the formation of Egyptian blue were investigated by high-temperature X-ray diffraction measurements on synthetic mixtures of quartz, malachite, an...

Cobalt alums from the Western Oases of Egypt were used in the second millennium bc as a colorant to produce dark blue glasses and glazes. A collection of these alums was gathered together and analysed by a series of techniques to accurately characterize them. They were then used alongside artificial analogues in experimental work aiming to determin...

Cobalt blue painted pottery was produced in New Kingdom Egypt, with the heyday for its production being from about 1400 BC to 1200 BC. Previous scientific examination has established that the cobalt blue pigment was a CoAl-spinel, which it was suggested was produced from cobaltiferous alums from the Western Desert of Egypt. In the present paper, qu...

Fourteen fragments of faience vessels from the Ptolemaic/Roman period found at the Egyptian site of Memphis, near Cairo, were analysed by SEM. The fragments included high-relief polychrome vessels, which are first produced in numbers in this period. Analysis allowed the composition and microstructure of the vessels to be assessed and conclusions dr...

Five sherds of green glazed pottery excavated at Canosa (Apulia) in Italy have been analysed by scanning electron microscopy. The aim of the investigation was to determine the chemical composition of the glazes and thus obtain information on the methods used in their production. The glazes were all of the high-lead type, coloured green by the addit...

Previous research has established that Iznik pottery differs from other Islamic stonepaste pottery in that its stonepaste bodies contain lead oxide as well as soda and lime, and that a significant proportion of the tin oxide in its glaze is present in solution rather than as tin oxide particles. In order to better understand these distinguishing fe...

Lead isotope analyses have been undertaken on a group of Islamic lead-glazed pottery artefacts from Fustat, Egypt, spanning the period from the eighth to the 14th century ad, that had previously been the subject of a comprehensive typological, chronological, petrographic and technological study. Comparison of the lead isotope ratios for the glazes...

Previously published data on the chemical compositions and microstructures of copper- and cobalt-blue frit, glass and faience from the New Kingdom site of Amarna in Egypt (Shortland 2000) are summarized. The data are then used to infer the raw materials and processes employed in the production of these vitreous materials. The results suggest that c...

The basic underlying theory for the strength, toughness and thermal shock resistance of brittle multiphase clay ceramics, together with the measurement procedures to determine these parameters, are first outlined. Published experimental data obtained for test bars containing different types of temper and fired to a range of temperatures are then co...

Proton free-precession has been used to measure weak magnetic gradients in the earth's magnetic field by a direct comparison of the precession frequencies from two detectors spaced several metres apart. The comparison is made by timing the first half-cycle of the beat frequency. In the first instrument described the time is measured electronically,...

As part of a multidisciplinary programme of research on Islamic glazed pottery, the development of polychrome decoration during the 12th century AD has been investigated by examining polished sections through glazed pottery in an analytical scanning electron microscope. The two main decorative techniques used were underglaze and overglaze painting....

In the Near East and Egypt, vitreous materials in the form of glazed stones and faience were first produced from about the 4th millennium B.C. Subsequently, the period around 1500 BC saw major developments in the range of vitreous materials with the production of glass vessels and glazed clay objects and an extension in the range of colorants used....

Tin glazes contain SnO2 particles, with a diameter similar to the wavelength of visible light, which are responsible for glaze opacification. In this paper a theoretical model to explain the optical behaviour of these glazes is developed. This model is tested by measurement of the reflectance and transmittance spectra for different optical paths in...

Recently several anthropological and sociological studies have interpreted technologies as cultural choices that are determined as much by local perceptions and the social context fly any material constraints or purely functional criteria. Using the example of ceramic technology we consider how materials science studies can contribute to and benefi...

Analysis has been conducted on 19 blue glasses from Amarna in Middle Egypt dated to around 1350 BC. The results suggest that these glasses fall into two distinct types: cobalt coloured glasses with a natron based alkali made from local Egyptian materials, and copper coloured glasses with a plant ash alkali, which follow a Mesopotamian tradition of...

The study of the life cycle of pottery, from the selection of raw materials and the production stage through distribution and use to ultimate discard, can make a valuable contribution to archaeological research. The aim of the present paper is to provide a summary and critical assessment of the particular contribution of the physical sciences to th...

The TL properties of single grains of quartz from a series of sediment samples have been measured. A distribution of both natural TL and the TL measured after a laboratory beta dose (second glow TL) was obtained. When the ratio of the natural TL to the second glow TL was plotted, it was observed that as well as a number of grains which were bright...

The microstructures and chemical compositions of a small group of glazed steatite objects from Egypt spanning the period from the fourth to the first millennium BC have been investigated in a scanning electron microscope with attached X‐ray spectrometer. Two primary methods of glazing have been identified. The first was characterised by high copper...

Very small samples from the Shroud of Turin have been dated by accelerator mass spectrometry in laboratories at Arizona, Oxford and Zurich. As controls, three samples whose ages had been determined independently were also dated. The results provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is mediaeval.

A systematic error has been identified in radiocarbon measurements run in the British Museum laboratory between approximately mid 1980 and the end of 1984, when all dating was halted for a number of months. The measurements potentially affected have numbers between about BM- 1700 and BM-2315, and correspond roughly to date lists XV to XIX pub- lish...