Table Of ContentARCHAEOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
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RSC Paperbacks
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
CHEMISTRY
A. MARK POLLARD and CARL HERON
Department ofA ?-chaeologicaSl ciences
Universip of Bradford
Bradford BD7 IDP, UK
THE ROYAL
C HE M IS T RY
Information
Services
ISBN 0-85404-523-6
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
0 The Royal Society of Chemistry 1996
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Published by The Royal Society of Chemistry, Thomas Graham House,
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Foreword
Archaeological science is a discipline which is growing rapidly in its
scope and maturity. The application of techniques deriving from the
natural sciences to archaeological research is, of course, not new and the
present volume rightly emphasizes some of the earlier initiatives in the
field of archaeological chemistry. But among the indicators of this
increasing maturity is the quality of the science on the one hand, and a
growing awareness of the problems of interpretation on the other.
This work by Pollard and Heron performs a valuable service in
defining more carefully than hitherto and then richly exemplifying the
field of archaeological chemistry, and it is fitting that it should be
published by The Royal Society of Chemistry. Hitherto it is perhaps the
discipline of physics which has come in for a good deal of the limelight
since it holds what is almost a monopoly in two important fields of
archaeological science: dating and prospecting. Some of the techniques
of dating may indeed be included within the province of chemistry:
amino acid racemization is dealt with very fully here, and obsidian
hydration is mentioned. But many of the most useful dating methods are
dependent upon radioactivity, a subject area often relinquished to
physics. And again many of the techniques of field prospection
-
resistivity surveys, use of the proton magnetometer, etc. fall within the
-
same province.
As defined here it is, very reasonably, chemical anabsis which lies at
the heart of archaeological chemistry. Therefore, following the historical
introduction, a wide-ranging survey of analytical techniques is under-
taken which certainly offers the best overview currently available to the
archaeologist. This is followed by what at first sight seems a compre-
hensive survey of examples and applications. On closer examination,
however, it emerges that nearly every chapter is based in good measure
upon the original research of one of the authors, supplemented by a
V
vi Foreword
further overview. Thus Heron’s work on organic residues, notably resins,
is put to very good use. Pollard’s researches in the characterization of
ceramics, in glass studies, and in the use of brass and other metals
likewise form the basis for much wider reviews of important fields.
One of the great strengths of the book in my view is its clear
perception that archaeology and archaeological science, although inter-
related and interdependent, are not at all the same thing. For the
interpretation of the data of archaeological science is a complicated and
difficult matter, and it involves two separate operations. The first, the
elucidation of rather concrete, factual questions ‘how old is this
-
sample?’, ‘where did it come from?’, ‘how has it been modified through
burial in the ground?’ - fall within archaeological science proper. But
this does not make them easy questions: the difficulties in the interpreta-
tion of the data from lead isotope analysis obtained in order to determine
the places of origin of metals used in the Aegean is a case in point.
Another such quesiton would be the age and authenticity of the materials
from the French site of Gloze1 - perhaps wisely not dealt with here, but
still an unresolved problem in the field of archaeological science. The
second operation is to achieve a clearer realization of the implications of
such concrete conclusions for the understanding of human behaviour in
the past. There the archaeologists and the archaeological scientists have
yet to find more effective ways of working together: the thoughtful
caution in the book makes an excellent start.
Archaeological chemistry is clearly not the same field as materials
science, although the two overlap, nor as metallurgy: Chapter 6 draws a
distinction between ‘the chemical study of metals’ and (I presume) the
application of metallurgical techniques to elucidate the history of the
working of individual artefacts. And this suggests to me that there lies
here another sub-field which has not yet emerged, fully fledged, in its
own right: the archaeology of technology, or archaeo-technology. For
the time will come when we shall wish to focus more clearly upon
processes and procedures of manufacture. The concept of the ‘chaine
operatoire’ now commonly applied to the study of lithic artefacts and to
the sequence of operations undertaken in their manufacture has been
applied already to ceramics and can certainly be applied also to other
products of pyrotechnology. Texts are available from Mesopotamia
which give recipes for various preparation procedures, for instance those
of metals, and very odd reading they make for modern eyes. This
suggests to me that the study of ancient technology, giving more
attention to what the ancient smiths, potters, glassblowers, and dyers
thought they were doing this is to say, laying greater emphasis upon
-
cognitive aspects - will soon be a possibility. But in order to do this a
Foreword vii
prerequisite is to get the modern science right, and that is what Pollard
and Heron are so systematically doing.
It is a great pleasure to introduce a work which, more clearly than
ever before, delineates an important field within archaeological science
and thus makes an important contribution to the discipline as a whole.
Colin Renfrew
Cambridge
January 1996
Description:The application of chemistry within archaeology is an important and fascinating area. It allows the archaeologist to answer such questions as "what is this artefact made of?", "where did it come from?" and "how has it been changed through burial in the ground?", providing pointers to the earliest hi
