Artefact study & analysis Flashcards
Use-wear analysis
- Helping to understand how artefacts were used
- Low power analysis carried out in order to detect the possible presence of micro-residues
- After cleaning, use wear analysis reveals the tools macro use wear attributes, such as levelled areas, fractures, edge-rounding, and polish
- More holistic examination can reveal interaction, mobility, trade, exchange, and social organisation
Use-wear analysis on grinding stones
- Use purified water to check for surface residues
- Clean objects in a bag in a sonic tank
- Take partial casts using dental moulding materials
- Examine with microscope
Object biographies: What are 6 ways artefacts can have ‘multiple lives’
- Movement of objects from their original place of production
- Use of artifacts for varied purposes
- Later individuals and groups collecting older material for practical purposes
- Deposition of artefact
- Broken or incomplete artefacts
- Modified artefacts
What is ethnographic evidence?
Using local knowledge and context to help analyse an artefact
Conventional approach to artefact recording and cateloguing
(Objective comments)
- Description:
- Colour, shape, size
- Manufacturing, technology, tools used
- Decorative marks/inscriptions
- Materials
- Where did raw materials originate?
- Dimension/weight?
- Condition and conservation
- Function
- Date and cultural affiliation
Human agency in artefact recording
- Emotional response
- Likes and dislikes
- Texture and weight
- Smell, sound, taste, etc
Why is material identification important
Correct identification of materials in artefacts is essential for determining use, origin, manufacture, and date
Chemical test material analysis for shell
Acid test
- Spot test with sulfuric acid/hydrochloric acid
- Shell produces Co2 effervescence
- Destructive analysis
Wet chemistry test on Silver
- Spot test with sulphuric acid and chormium troxide
- If artefact is made of silver then silver chromate will form
Material testing on copper
Moist cuprotesmo test paper is applied to the surface of the artefact or corrosion products
Physical material analysis on Tin
- Spot test with sulfuric acid
- If tin is present, tin sulphide will form
Physical material analysis on Iron
- Magnetic (corroded products may not be)
- Spot test or test corrosion products with hydrochloric acid
- If iron is present then iron chloride compound will form
Physical material analysis on Gold
- Visual inspection
- Aqua regia = solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid
- Reacts with all metals except for gold
Material analysis on ivory to work out which animial it came from
- Hippo tusk is much smaller, visual examination
- Different formation processes and density
- Different colour
- Isotopic tests can determine the origin of the elephant or hippo
Material Identification: XRF
- X-ray beam excites artefact surface resulting in backscatter emision of x-rays
- Inexpensive, non-destructive, rapid, surface only
- Some methods have portable and non-portable equipment
