Archaeometallurgy - Science topic

Octo-Alloy, also called Ashtadhatu, is a traditional alloy to produce religious idols, ornaments and sculptures in indian subcontinent. My question regarding the alloy is

Several items like this one were collected during excavation on the iron smelting site of undetermined chronology. The material of the imprint most likely was used as a flux during smelting process. Any suggestion as to the imprint material nature? Thanks.

We would like to know the code (or provider) of Certified Reference Materials (CRM) with a certificate of analysis. We want to buy them for the analysis of gold and silver ancient objects with micro-XRF (Energy Dispersive).

I would like to conduct compositional analyisis on a sample of medieval coins (alloy of silver with a majority of base metal content). It is known that the quantity of silver in these coins decreased over time; compositional analysis will help determine accurately the actual silver variations and thus, the relative chronology already proposed for these coins. I intend to conduct X-ray fluorescence analysis (full area scan). I would like to make sure that possible surface enrichment of coins (sometimes medieval coins had enriched silver surface) would not compromise the reliability of data. Could anybody give me some more information about XRF analysis (full area scan) ? Thank you very much

I am working in late iron age metallurgy in Balearic Islands, and we have found smalls double axes in funerary context with similar isotopics values than copper ores from crete... But I don't know any especific paralel for these chronologies.

Could anybody suggest any information or references on the activity related to iron smelting located on the island of the lake or river? From any period and country?

Last year we had small excavation with 10 m2 area uncovered on the lake island site, which is small 200x40 m glacial hillock with clayed till covered by sand and sandy loam. App.150 kg of iron slag and pieces of clay furnace (-es) was found. The material concentrated on the highest spot of the hillock at 2-3 m above the lake level and chosen area for excavation was the most anomalous spot according to magnetic susceptibility data. The material was mixed with clear sandy loam with no observable stratigraphic layers. The thickness of homogenous sandy loam layer varied, the clay bottom in the trench was reached at the depth of 0.9 m, and the contour of this bottom resembled the zone as if mining activity might has been performed for extracting clay material for the furnace built nearby. However, no intact furnaces or other structures of manufacturing were found as well as no traces of charcoal. The iron slag itself is analogous to those sites dated to the Roman Period in the East Baltic region.

Currently available information suggests the site to be the place not for iron smelting but rather the place for burying the debris of iron manufacturing?!

I would appreciate any comments and remarks on this situation.

Is there any progress in the research methods used in archaeometallurgy?

I'm analyzing possible slag from a prehistoric furnace in Ireland with XRF results showing an 80-86% level of iron in all samples tested with the next highest element being silica at 7-8%, the rest being trace inclusions. These results do not correspond with the levels of iron that are produced in iron working slags that I have seen so far, so our research has lead us to believe that this may be a product of two stage copper smelting. Has anyone seen similar results elsewhere or can offer a different explanation for this type of result?

The earliest relics of cupellation process have so far been found from Iran, Turkey, and Syria. But how do we know, if the process was performed for extraction of gold and/or silver from the ore?

I already know that some works have already been done on Arisman cupellation relics by Perncka et al. 2011.

I would be grateful for more references or clues.