Artefact study & analysis

Question 1

Use-wear analysis

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

Use-wear analysis on grinding stones

Answer 2

• 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

Question 3

Object biographies: What are 6 ways artefacts can have ‘multiple lives’

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

What is ethnographic evidence?

Answer 4

Using local knowledge and context to help analyse an artefact

Question 5

Conventional approach to artefact recording and cateloguing

Answer 5

(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

Question 6

Human agency in artefact recording

Answer 6

• Emotional response
• Likes and dislikes
• Texture and weight
• Smell, sound, taste, etc

Question 7

Why is material identification important

Answer 7

Correct identification of materials in artefacts is essential for determining use, origin, manufacture, and date

Question 8

Chemical test material analysis for shell

Answer 8

Acid test
- Spot test with sulfuric acid/hydrochloric acid
- Shell produces Co2 effervescence
- Destructive analysis

Question 9

Wet chemistry test on Silver

Answer 9

• Spot test with sulphuric acid and chormium troxide
• If artefact is made of silver then silver chromate will form

Question 10

Material testing on copper

Answer 10

Moist cuprotesmo test paper is applied to the surface of the artefact or corrosion products

Question 11

Physical material analysis on Tin

Answer 11

• Spot test with sulfuric acid
• If tin is present, tin sulphide will form

Question 12

Physical material analysis on Iron

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

Physical material analysis on Gold

Answer 13

• Visual inspection
• Aqua regia = solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid
• Reacts with all metals except for gold

Question 14

Material analysis on ivory to work out which animial it came from

Answer 14

• 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

Question 15

Material Identification: XRF

Answer 15

• 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

Question 16

Material Identification: XRD

Answer 16

• X-ray differentiation
• Also an X-ray scatter technique
• Crystalline phases, structure
• Whole samples, inexpensive
• Destructive

Question 17

Case study: Micro beads from Anatolia
- XRF material identification

Answer 17

• 3 raw materials
• Type 1: Predominantly Mg, Si, O2
• XRD mineralology consistent with enstatite-magnesium silicate
• Synthetic steatite
• Type 2: Complex mineral mixtures: binary mix of smectite/apatite
• Anthophllite, firing of talc-chlorite mixture
• Chlorite/smectite clay
• Type 3: Predominantly calcium, phosphorus, chlorine
• Consistent with apatite

Question 18

Case study: Micro beads from Anatolia
- XRF material analyis

Answer 18

• Manufacture inferred from bead form, chemical composition, and crystalline characterisation
• Bulk talc/apatite cut into ring-shaped beads
• Shaped from silicate-rich pastes
• On-site manufacture of paste beads suggested by end pieces and kiln
• Central hole formed by rolling paste around thin fibrous material
• Spinal striations indicate paste tube shaped prior to being cut into beads
• All raw materials could have been locally sourced