Results from burial experiments with simulated medieval glasses

ABSTRACTDuring several hundred years of burial in the soil, glasses, especially those with medieval compositions, develop heavily corroded surfaces, showing phenomena such as local pitting, laminated layers and browning effects. For this study the damage phenomena have been characterised for three original glasses, using conventional methods (light microscopy and SEM of the surface and cross sections) and microfocus X-ray computed tomography (mCT), a new non-destructive analytical technique.The degradation of glass in the soil depends on a variety of parameters, concerned with the glass itself and with the burial environment. Since synergetic effects may complicate any mechanistic studies, …