Showing papers on "Bronze published in 2002"

Copper and Bronze in Art: Corrosion, Colorants, Conservation

Abstract: This 190 year review of the literature on copper and its alloys integrates the information on pigments, corrosion products and minerals that are usually considered separately though they are often the same compounds. The various environmental conditions to which copper alloy objects may be exposed including burial, outdoor, and indoor museum environments and the methods used to conserve them are discussed and information is included on ancient and historical technologies, the nature of patina as it pertains to copper and bronze and the use of copper corrosion materials as pigments. Chapters are organized primarly by chemical corrosion products and includetopics such as early technologies, copper chlorides and bronze disease, the chemistry and history of turquoise, Egyptian blue and other synthetic copper silicates, the organics salts of copper in bronze corrosion and bronze patinas. A detailed survey of conservation treatments for bronze objects is also provided. Four appendices cover copper and bronze chemistry, replication experiments for early pigments recipes, a list of copper minerals and corrosion products and X-ray diffraction studies. -- ICCROM

Raman spectroscopy of the basic copper chloride minerals atacamite and paratacamite: implications for the study of copper, brass and bronze objects of archaeological significance

Abstract: Raman spectra of the basic copper chloride minerals atacamite and paratacamite have been obtained at 298 and 77K using a Raman microprobe in combination with a thermal stage. Four distinct regions involved with hydroxyl stretching, hydroxyl deformation, CuO stretching and CuCl stretching and bending have been identified. The implication from the study is that Raman spectroscopy can be a useful tool for identifying corrosion products of copper, brass and bronze objects of archaeological or antiquarian significance. In addition, the technique may be a useful aid in the restoration degraded pigment products from old paintings.

Composite material containing tungsten and bronze

Abstract: High-density composite materials comprising tungsten and bronze are useful as lead replacements in the production of ammunition, weights and other high density articles. The composition of the composite, articles manufactured using the composite, and a process for making the composite are disclosed.

Early Urbanizations in the Levant: A Regional Narrative

Abstract: Part 1 Introduction: current models of levantine urbanization archaeological regions revisited shifting boundaries - the spatial expression of social change a case study - the Hula Valley. Part 2 The Hula Valley landscape: definition of boundaries the natural environment human ecology in the Hula Valley - potentials and constraints. Part 3 The stratigraphic-chronological framework - key sites of the Hula Valley, early bronze I-middle bronze 1 sites pottery assemblages survey results - gazetter of early bronze I-middle bronze I sites in the Hula Valley. Part 4 Settlement patterns - a chronological survey: early bronze I early bronze II early bronze III Dolmens - early bronze III/intermediate bronze age intermediate bronze age middle bronze I. Part 5 Patterns of settlement and social change in the Hula Valley and their implications for the study of early urban cultures in the southern levant: early bronze I - the demise of self-sustaining village settlement early bronze II - the establishment of an integrated urban system early bronze III -the zenith and decline of urbanism intermediate bronze age - at the margins of the Syrian core middle bronze I - reurbanization. Part 6 Conclusion - the ebb and flow of early urbanism in the levant.

Lead-free bearing

Abstract: A lead-free bearing includes a bronze matrix powder metal bearing layer bonded to a steel backing a fully densified. The bearing material has about 8 to 12% by weight tin, about 1 to less than 5% by weight bismuth, and about 0.03 to 0.08% by weight phosphorus, with the balance being copper. The tin is soluable in the copper to yield the bronze matrix, and the bismuth exists as finely dispersed, undissolved islands through the matrix. Such bearings exhibit physical properties comparable to or better than those of traditional bronze-lead bearings and improved wear in seizure properties.

Unalloyed copper inclusions in ancient bronze artefacts

Abstract: Ancient bronze artifacts, that represent a considerable part of the archeological finds, have been largely studied because of their complex degradation phenomena taking place in the long time span that have not been fully understood. One of the peculiar features of ancient bronzes is the presence of inclusions of copper unalloyed with tin. Unalloyed Copper Inclusions (UCI) have been observed in buried archaeological bronze artefacts by several authors, but each paper reports only on a limited number of cases. In our extensive studies on bronze artefacts, UCI have been observed in many bronze artefacts with very different features and purposes. Both as-cast and wrought artefacts were studied, so that the influence of the manufacturing process and the composition of the artefacts on the formation of UCI might be evaluated. The microstructure and composition of these artefacts were studied and the features of UCI have been related with those of the surrounding phases. The results have been discussed and compared with those obtained by other authors. The presence of UCI in buried archaeological bronze artefacts could indicate some unusual corrosion processes that might need to be accounted for when designing conservation treatments.

La cultura talayótica una sociedad de la edad del hierro en la periferia de la colonización fenicia

Abstract: The Talayotic culture. An Iron Age society in the periphery of the phoenician colonization. The present study explains a critique about the chronological bases on which the origins of the Talayotic culture of the Balearic Islands have been grounded. From this, a new chronological framework is accepted, which has already been postulated by various research teams in recent years. The synchronicity that is seen between the Talayotic culture’s beginnings and its initial development, and the arrival of iron on the islands, as well as the substantial changes seen in the network of overseas trade in the Central and Western Mediterranean, which came to be monopolised by Phoenician merchants, permits us to suggest that the crystallisation and evolution of the Talayotic society, with its clear and well-known peculiarities, are also included within this geohistoric context. Indications of the Talayotic culture’s ultimate causes, however, point to endogenous origins and a period of prior gestation in the midst of Balearic communities of the Naviform Bronze Period. A sequence is also proposed for the models of trade among the agents that controlled long-distance maritime commerce, that is, among the Phoenicians, the Punic peoples of Ibiza afterwards, and the Talayotic communities of Majorca and Minorca. Not touched upon in the present paper are matters related to the typology and function of Cyclopean turriform architecture, nor those related to the material culture whose understanding has been re-assessed, up dated, and disseminated in the archaeological literature of recent years.

Cellini and the Principles of Sculpture

Abstract: 1. Salt, composition, and the goldsmith's intelligence 2. Casting, blood and bronze 3. The Ars Apollinea and the mastery of marble 4. The design of virtue.

Vasijas cerámicas para reducir minerales de cobre en la Península Ibérica y en la Francia Meridional

Abstract: As was shown in Spain by the end of the 1980s, the use of common earthenware vessels as containers for prehistoric copper metallurgy has also been discovered in France. The authors propose in this article a synthesis of the knowledge concerning the use of this technology in Spain, its chronological and geographical frameworks and the more relevant mineralogical and metallurgical features. All this allows us to show the effectiveness and simplicity of the resources used to practice this early metallurgy. The finds in France are more modest and rarely have been analysed properly in the laboratory. However, the review of the archaeological record suggests that specific research informed by the results presented in the article would provide evidence of the impact of this technology through the Copper and Bronze Ages.

Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland : Irish antiquities

Abstract: 1. The Museum: origins, collections and buildings 2. Prehistoric Antiquities: from the Stone Age to the end of the Middle Bronze Age 3. Before the Celts: treasures in gold and bronze 4. The Iron Age 5. Beginnings: Early Medieval Ireland, AD 500-850 6. Viking Age Ireland, AD 850-1150 7. Later Medieval Ireland, AD 1150-1550 Bibliography Index

For whom did the bell toll in ancient Greece? Archaic and Classical Greek bells at Sparta and beyond

Abstract: Bells of fairly small size were known across ancient Greece from the Archaic period onwards, both in bronze and terracotta. They are found in sanctuaries, graves and, more rarely, in houses, and served a variety of purposes, both practical and more abstract, in daily life and ritual, and in both male and female contexts. Archaeological, iconographical and literary sources attest to their use as votive offerings in ritual and funerary contexts, as signalling instruments for town-guards, as amulets for children and women as well as, in South Italy, in a Dionysiac context. A use as animal (notably horse) bells, however, was not widespread before the later Roman period. The bells' origins lie in the ancient Near East and Caucasian area, from where they found their way especially to Archaic Samos and Cyprus and later to mainland Greece. Here, the largest known find complex of bronze and terracotta bells, mostly of Classical date, comes from the old British excavations in the sanctuary of Athena on the Spartan acropolis and is published here for the first time. Spartan bells are distinctive in shape yet related particularly to other Lakonian and Boiotian bells as well as earlier bells from Samos. At Sparta, as elsewhere, the connotation of the bells' bronze sound as magical, protective, purificatory and apotropaic was central to their use, although specific functions varied according to place, time, and occasion.

A petrographic study of the casting core of the Lupa Capitolina bronze sculpture (Rome, Italy) and identification of its provenance

Abstract: Within the framework of a major project of investigations on the Lupa Capitolina (Capitoline She-Wolf) bronze sculpture, samples of the casting core collected from its interior were analysed. The results of X-ray diffractometry, thermal analyses, chemistry and thin sections revealed that the casting core is homogeneous, as if it came from the same microenvironment. The composition of the casting core led to circumscription of the provenance area of the material used in the preparation of the sculpture's inner mould, and thus the location of the bronze foundry area in the lower Tiber valley, close to Rome.

Multiple layer powder metal bearings

Abstract: A method of fabricating multi-layer bronze bearings includes laying down a first layer of copper-based powder metal material (16) of a first composition onto a steel backing strip (12). At least a second layer (18) of copper-based powder metal material of a second composition different than that of the first is laid down on the first layer, without significantly densifying the first layer. The layers are then sintered, cooled, and roll compacted to bond them to one another and to the backing, after which the layers are further sintered.

An Unusual Corrosion Product, Pyromorphite, from a Bronze An: A Technical Note

Abstract: Before restoration, a bronze An (dining table) of the Han dynasty (c. 175 BC) was analysed in order to assess its condition and to aid in drawing up a restoration plan. The study revealed the presence of an unusual lead chloro-phosphate mineral, pyromorphite. The analytical study of this lead corrosion product is discussed in detail. The corrosion mechanism was inferred from the results of the observations and analytical data. Pyromorphite was found to be stable in an environment of high relative humidity.

Polychromy and Egyptian Bronze: New Evidence for Artificial Coloration

Abstract: Cette etude analytique a fourni de nouvelles preuves quant a la presence de polychromie sur des statuettes de bronze egyptiennes. Onze statuettes ont ete examinees par microscopie optique, MEB, analyse par fluorescence X, spectroscopie Raman et diffraction des rayons X. Des images de synthese ont ete utilisees pour reconstituer leur apparence d'origine. La conclusion de ce travail est que la polychromie des statuettes en bronze est beaucoup plus largement repandue qu'on ne l'imaginait. Ceci a des consequences pour le nettoyage et la conservation de ces objets, comme pour la perception de leurs couleurs d'origine.

Process and electrolyte for the galvanic deposition of bronze

Abstract: Galvanic deposition of bronze on a substrate comprises using an acidic electrolyte containing tin and copper ions, an alkylsulfonic acid and an aromatic non-ionic wetting agent. An Independent claim is also included for an electrolyte used in the deposition process.

Script and Seal Use on Cyprus in the Bronze and Iron Ages

Abstract: Problems and prospects in the study of script and seal use on Cyprus in the Bronze and Iron Ages, Joanna S. Smith marks on pots - patterns of use in the archaeological record at Enkomi, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld device, image and coercion - the role of glyptic in the political economy of late Bronze Age Cyprus, Jennifer M. Webb the display and viewing of the syllabic inscriptions of Rantidi sanctuary, Georgia Bonny Bazemore the stamp seals of Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age - an introduction, Andres T. Reyes seals and writing in the Ancient Near East and Cyprus - observations from context, Barry B. Powell.

Becoming Cultural: Society and the Incorporation of Bronze

Abstract: Thirteen papers, from the EEA Sixth Annual Meeting held in Lisbon in 2000, aim to explain the role that metal and metalworking played in past societies and to integrate `analytical data with theoretical, contextual and ethno-archaeological studies'. Divided into four sections, contributions examine the development of metallurgy in the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age Levant and Europe; evidence for metalworking in Wales, central Europe and Portugal; ornate metalworking in Iron Age Norway, medieval Russia and modern Portugal and Cairo and, finally, the social and cultural function of metalworking and metal objects.

The Material Characterization of a Santamarian Ceremonial Axe

Abstract: The characterization of a ceremonial bronze axe is described. The axe is assigned to the Santamarian culture of north-west Argentina, c. 1000–1470 ad, and was selected to increase presently limited knowledge of prehistoric metallurgy in the Andean region of Argentina. The characterization methods used were electron probe microanalysis, gamma radiography, X-ray diffraction, optical metallography and microhardness testing. The axe was well cast in a bivalve mould, with the only defects in the area of an ancient fracture. The analysis showed that it is made from a tin bronze with a, probably, accidental addition of lead. Arsenic was found as a surface contamination, probably deriving from arsenic in the water of the stream in which the axe was found. The axe shows that Santamarian craftsmen had the skill to decorate the axe in an artistic style with a strong local accent while providing a functional, annealed and cold-worked cutting edge.

Lead-free bronze alloy

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a new lead-free bronze alloy in which a substantially harmful amount of lead is not eluted in the environment, particularly in water, bronze alloys used at present can also be used as recycling materials, and moreover, castability, workability and mechanical properties are not inferior to those of the conventional ones. SOLUTION: This lead-free bronze alloy contains, as the main components, by weight, 83 to 89% copper, 3 to 7% tin and 4 to 12%-zinc, and further, the other components inclusive of <=0.2% lead are contained as impurities of <=1 wt.% in total.