0000000000297289
AUTHOR
Arun Banerjee
Identification of Chinese fresh-water pearls using MN2+ activated cathodoluminescence
Fresh-water tissue graft-cultured pearls from China were investigated using hot cathode and cold cathode cathodoluminescence microscopes. Supplementary investigations were done using X-radiography, a Scanning Electron Microscope, an optical microscope, and an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The results were compared with those of natural fresh-water pearls from the Mississippi river. Thin sections of fresh-water natural pearls from the Mississippi river could be distinguished from those of fresh-water tissue graft cultured pearls from China using a hot cathode cathodoluminescence microscope according to the distribution of Mn2+ as follows: (1) Fresh-water tissue graft cultured pearls from Ch…
Durbi Takusheyi: a high-status burial site in the western Centralbilād al-sūdān
Durbi Takusheyi is a burial site composed of at least eight mounds located between the modern towns of Katsina and Daura in northern Nigeria. Parts of the mounds were first excavated in 1907 by Herbert Richmond Palmer in cooperation with the Emir of Katsina and later again in 1992 in the course of a German research project under the lead of Dierk Lange, Bayreuth. After the 1992 excavation, the retained blocks were stored in the Jos Museum, Nigeria, for further analyses. In 2007 the Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (RGZM) and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria (NCMM) started a project with the objective of completely restoring and analyzing the excavated artefacts…
The ivory workshop of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain) and the identification of ivory from Asian elephant on the Iberian Peninsula in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC
During excavations in the huge ditched enclosure of Valencina de la Concepcion (Seville, Spain), the main centre from the first hierarchical framework-settlement in the Guadalquivir Valley, a pit with remains of a context for producing ivory artefacts, dating from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, was discovered in the large metallurgical nucleate workshops. Scientific (Optical Microscopy, FIRT and Raman Spectroscopy, C/N Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry) analyses revealed that the ivory belonged to Asian elephants and the archaeological study, which was made in a specialized workshop context. In this paper we present the archaeological context, the study of the ivory artefacts and th…
Analysis of Roman and other archaeological glasses by 12 MeV proton activation analysis
Abstract 14 elements were determined, at trace level, in Roman and other archaeological glasses by 12 MeV proton activation analysis. The results show that the natural glass from Mongolia and Brazilian quartz are the purest of all the samples analysed with detection limits at 1 ppm level for Ti, V, Cr, As, Sr, Y and Zr. In several cut pieces of one variety of Roman glass, using the concentration of Ca, Ti, Fe, Sr and Sb as markers, the homogeneity of glass production and their potential use in provenance studies were discussed.
Ivory Craftsmanship, Trade and Social Significance in the Southern Iberian Copper Age: The Evidence from the PP4-Montelirio Sector of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain)
Because of its great potential to provide data on contacts and overseas trade, ivory has aroused a great deal of interest since the very start of research into Iberian late prehistory. Research recently undertaken by the German Archaeological Institute in Madrid in collaboration with a number of other institutions has provided valuable contributions to the study of ivory in the Iberian Copper Age and Early Bronze Age. One of the archaeological sites that is contributing the most data for analysing ivory from the Copper Age in southern Iberia is Valencina de la Concepción (Seville), which is currently the focus of several debates on the development of social complexity. This article contribu…
Sourcing african ivory in chalcolithic Portugal
A recent review of all ivory from excavations in Chalcolithic and Beaker period Iberia shows a marked coastal distribution – which strongly suggests that the material is being brought in by sea. Using microscopy and spectroscopy, the authors were able to distinguish ivories from extinct Pleistocene elephants, Asian elephants and, mostly, from African elephants of the savannah type. This all speaks of a lively ocean trade in the first half of the third millennium BC, between the Iberian Peninsula and the north-west of Africa and perhaps deeper still into the continent.
Investigation of manganese in salt- and freshwater pearls
Abstract The trace element distribution in natural and cultured pearls is analysed by micro-PIXE, cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy and spectroscopy and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy to develop a new method to distinguish cultured from natural pearls. These different kinds of pearls can be identified by their manganese content and its distribution in aragonite and calcite structure, respectively. Manganese content of natural freshwater pearls from Persian Gulf was compared to that of natural freshwater pearls from the Mississippi river (USA). Moreover manganese content of tissue-graft freshwater pearls from Chansu (China) was compared to that of natural freshwater pearls from…
Ivory in the Chalcolithic enclosure of Perdigões (South Portugal): the social role of an exotic raw material
AbstractThis article discusses the social role played by ivory and ivory articles in the Perdigoes enclosures (South Portugal) during the Chalcolithic (third millennium bc), in the context of the emergence and development of social complexity on the Iberian Peninsula. Perdigoes is a Portuguese prehistoric site with some of the highest concentrations of ivory objects known in Iberia and with the greatest variety. The contexts, almost exclusively funerary, are discussed along with the results of provenance studies. Comparing the different contexts and the categories of objects made of ivory makes it possible to distinguishing a variety of active social dimensions (such as individual status, g…
La utilización de marfil de cachalote en el Calcolítico de Portugal
Scientific analysis were undertaken within a research project concerning ivory objects from the Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age of the Iberian Peninsula. In several of the analyses of objects from Portuguese Estremadura, especially V-perforated buttons, we could detect for the first time the presence of sperm whale ivory. This highlights the advantage and necessity of scientific analysis of ivory. It also clearly demonstrates that not all ivory used was ivory from African or Asian elephants, but we also did find ivory from the extinct Elephas antiquus, the hippopotamus and in this case sperm-whale. Thus, already in the Chalcolithic the raw material provenience was highly diverse, which in …