THIN SECTION PETROGRAPHY, GEOCHEMISTRY AND SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL... CERAMICS

Front Cover Copyright Page CONTENTS PREFACE 1: INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL CERAMICS & COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS 1.1 Archaeological Ceramics 1.2 Ceramic Compositional Analysis 1.3 Introduction to Thin Section Petrography 1.4 Further Reading Figures (Chapter 1) Fig. 1.1 Archaeological ceramics Fig. 1.2 Life-size ceramic figurines Fig. 1.3 Ceramic building material Fig. 1.4 Ceramic sherds in situ in archaeological strata. Fig. 1.5 Pottery sherd being studied by eye Fig. 1.6 Dedicated scientific laboratory for the materials science analysis of archaeological ceramics Fig. 1.7 Archaeological ceramic sherd seen in thin section under the polarising light microscope Fig. 1.8 Diffractogram of the mineralogical composition of two archaeological ceramic sherds Fig. 1.9 Geochemical data on the abundance of 23 elements in 50 archaeological ceramic sherds Fig. 1.10 Archaeological ceramic sherd seen in polished cross section with the scanning electron microscope (SEM) in backscattered electron mode (BSE) Fig. 1.11 Compositional patterning within archaeological ceramics from a single site, as seen in thin section Fig. 1.12 Statistical exploration of geochemical data on nine elements collected on 56 ceramic artefacts of the type in Fig. 1.2 Fig. 1.13 Ceramic provenance determination Fig. 1.14 Reconstructed paste preparation technology for the production of multiple ceramic types at Emperor Qin Shihuang’s mausoleum near Xi’an, China Fig. 1.15 Clay vitrification microstructure of archaeological ceramic sherds in the SEM Fig. 1.16 Simple, inexpensive polarising light microscope being used to examine an archaeological ceramic thin section Fig. 1.17 Archaeological ceramic sherd being non-invasively geochemically characterised via portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (pXRF) Fig. 1.18 Archaeological ceramic thin sections Fig. 1.19 An archaeological ceramic thin section seen at high magnification under the light microscope in plane polarised light (PPL) Fig. 1.20 The same sample as Fig. 1.19 above, but seen in crossed polars (XP) Fig. 1.21 Archaeological ceramic sherd with plant matter added to its paste Fig. 1.22 Used ancient refractory ceramic in thin section Fig. 1.23 Fritware/stonepaste ceramic artefact in thin section composed of angular, crushed quartz inclusions set in a glassy, isotropic matrix with abundant voids Fig. 1.24 Photomicrograph of cementitious material in thin section 2: SAMPLING, PREPARATION & ANALYSIS OF CERAMIC THIN SECTIONS 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Sampling 2.3 Thin Section Preparation 2.4 Analytical Equipment 2.5 Other Resources 2.6 Curation & Access to Thin Sections 2.7 Further Reading Figures (Chapter 2) Fig. 2.1 Thin section production sequence Fig. 2.2 Sub-sampling archaeological ceramics for thin section petrography at a museum Fig. 2.3 Orientation of ceramic thin sections Fig. 2.4 Apparatus for cutting ceramics during thin section preparation Fig. 2.5 Archaeological ceramic sherd thin sectioned twice Fig. 2.6 Archaeological ceramic sherd thin sectioned twice Fig. 2.7 Sensitively sampling a complete ceramic artefact for thin section preparation Fig. 2.8 Plucking of a ceramic thin section due to insufficient impregnation of the chip during preparation Fig. 2.9 Polishing impregnated ceramic chips on a rotating lapping device Fig. 2.10 Two models of commercially available thin sectioning machines Fig. 2.11 Fine scratches left from grinding the sample with the diamond cup wheel of a thin section machine Fig. 2.12 This coverslipped thin section is more than 30 μm thick Fig. 2.13 Final polishing thin sections by hand Fig. 2.14 The upper part of this thin section is