Physico-Chemical Characterization of Yu Guo Beads(1100-771 B. C. ) in China

When was the earliest glass produced in China? This has still been a question so far. Some archaeologists have thought that Yu Guo beads are real glass, the earliest glass(1100-771 B. C. ) in China. However, more details of scientific investigations in this paper show that Yu Guo beads are mainly made of clastic quartz (>95%) with a small amount of clay and sintered under the low temperature(500-600℃). It is not a glassy body, but a kind of polycrystal ornaments.     

Radiological safety assessment inside ancient Egyptian tombs in Saqqara

Many archaeological sites in Egypt are unique worldwide, such as ancient tombs and pyramids, because they document fundamental developments in human civilization that took place several thousands of years ago. For this reason, these sites are visited by numerous visitors every year. The present work is devoted to provide a pre-operational radiological baseline needed to quantify occupational radiation exposure at the famous Saqqara region in Cairo, Egypt. A hyperpure Ge detector has been used in the γ-ray spectrometric analysis while the ²²²Rn concentration was measured using a portable radon monitor RTM 1688-2, SARAD. The mean specific activities of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K in the samples collected from the interior walls of the Saqqara tombs were determined and found to show average values of 16, 8.5 and 45 Bq kg^?1, respectively. The concentration of radon was measured inside the tombs Serapeum, South tomb and the Zoser Pyramid (fifth level) and an associated average working level of 0.83 WL was obtained. In order to avoid the health hazards associated with the exposure to radon during the long period of work inside these tombs, proposed solutions are introduced.     

Archaeometrical study of paleometallurgical materials from the archaeological site “Cerro de las Balsas — Chinchorro” (La Albufereta, Alacant, Spain)

An Iberian archaeological site located in the east of Spain is one of the most important cupellation centers found in the 4th century b.c. Different metallurgical materials were found in the archaeological site as minerals, cast slags, forged slags, metallic lead, cupella fragments and bronzes. Also was found reverbs remains used for cupper-based materials and cupellation procedure, and hearth forge remains for obtained iron material. The recuperated samples were studied by comparing samples of the same type of material by macroanalysis and microanalysis. The microanalysis and quantitation of the different archaeological materials was carried out by SEM/EDX. The information provides about the knowledge of a metallurgic process such as that of silver production by lead cupellation. The microanalysis results reflect the variety of elements that constitute the slags and other materials, and that come from the forge of the worked metallic materials. Also, the process cupellation was confirmed by the identification of lead and silver. The presence of forge slag corroborates the use of the great amount of recovered heart forges in the excavation like metallurgical structures for the iron work.     

龙游牛场古地下洞室群岩柱的长期抗拉强度反演

在龙游县上畈村附近的牛场有一处由2个洞室组成的古地下洞室群。现场调查发现,在其中1号洞的岩柱1上出现了一条竖直的张开裂缝。据分析,这是上覆岩层对该岩柱施加过大荷载的结果,这一发现为本文研究岩体长期抗拉强度提供了条件。作者即以根据牛场古地下洞室群1号洞内岩柱1的拉裂现象为研究对象,根据最大拉应力论来反演岩体的长期抗拉强度。这不仅对长期强度研究具有理论意义,而且在古工程保护方面也具有应用价值。     

ToF-SIMS and XPS study of ancient papers

The surface composition of 18th century papers was investigated by means of ToF-SIMS and XPS. The aim of the present study was to explore the possibility of using these surface sensitive methods to obtain information which can help to determine the manufacturing process, provenance and state of conservation of ancient papers. The ToF-SIMS results indicate that the analyzed papers were sized by gelatin and that alum was added as hardening agent. The paper sheets produced in near geographical areas but in different paper mills exhibit a similar surface composition and morphology of the fibers as shown by the ToF-SIMS measurements. The ToF-SIMS and the XPS results indicate that a significant fraction of the cellulose fibers is not covered by the gelatin layer. This was observed for the ancient papers and for a modern handmade paper manufactured according to the old recipes.     

Chemical characterization of ancient potteries from Himera and Pestavecchia necropolis (Sicily, Italy) by Inductively Coupled Plasma–Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP–OES)

Thirty-eight samples of pottery were analyzed for determining chemical composition in order to establish their provenance. The potteries tested in the present research come from Himera and Pestavecchia archaeological sites. After digestion in microwave oven, the samples have been analyzed for fourteen minor elements (Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ga, Li, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr, Ti, Tl, and Zn) and six major elements (Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, and Na). Chemical analysis was carried out by Inductively Coupled Plasma–Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP–OES). The most abundant minor elements are Cr, Ba and Ni. Cr concentration ranged from 66 to 3635 mg kg^{− 1}, Ba concentration ranged from 388 to 2677 mg kg^{− 1} and Ni concentration ranged from 35 to 1758 mg kg^{− 1}. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of the replicates on the concentrations of analyzed metals ranged from 0.07% to 14%.The aim of this study is to assign the local or non-local provenance of the examined potteries, in particular validating and clarifying archaeological hypothesis based on the simple visual examination and stylistic characterization of ceramic objects. Principal component analysis performed on the dataset, together with the application of cluster technique and non statistical analysis, allowed the identification of three main groups of samples and a lonely one (R 97). In particular, sample R 97 shows high Cr concentration (3635 mg kg^{− 1}) and high Ni concentration (1758 mg kg^{− 1}), typical of Corinthian pottery. The results of chemical analysis show that the stylistic features are not always sufficient to correctly identify the origin of a ceramic object.     

颜料层微观形貌对古代壁画褪色及显现影响

文物壁画在自然环境下产生褪色现象具有复杂性,严格意义上讲,人们无法重现自然环境下这种褪色发生的条件,但这并不妨碍人们研究其褪色原因的可能性和途径。通过实验来验证所提出机制的合理性,这也符合自然科学普遍采用的研究方法。提出颜料层微观形貌变化是引起壁画褪色的一种重要原因。胶料作为颜料层的连续相,当胶料分解时,颜料层微观形貌必然产生变化,为证明这种变化会引起颜料层褪色,而非颜料变化所致。建立了以具有较高热稳定性的赭石为颜料,以明胶作为粘接剂制成模拟的壁画颜料层。然后通过加热处理使胶料发生氧化分解,从而造成颜料层微观形貌发生变化,但赭石颜料依然稳定,期望证明在颜料赭石不发生变化时,由于颜料层微观形貌变化也可引起颜料褪色。实验通过煅烧壁画颜料层模拟样获得胶料降解的壁画模型,分别以SEM及多角度反射率光谱等技术,考察模拟样胶料降解前后表面微观形貌和光学性质变化。结果表明：壁画模拟样煅烧后,颜料层表面产生空隙结构,样品表面多角度反射率光谱表明煅烧后样品颜料层对可见光的反射增加而吸收降低,并观察到模拟样颜色淡化。以无色,难挥发,且不与颜料层发生化学反应的离子液体涂覆褪色样品表面,以上述技术表征涂覆处理前后颜料层表面微观形貌和表面光学性质变化,结果表明：离子液体填充了褪色样品表面颗粒间空隙,检测到样品表面对可见光的反射降低而吸收增加,观察到褪色样品的颜色加深。以上实验结果证明了推测合理性,即微观形貌变化确实会引起颜色变化。依据此原理以唐代墓室褪色壁画为例,进行了显现修复应用研究,其颜色显现效果显著。     

Non-Destructive In-Situ Study of White and Black Coating on Painted Pottery Sherds From Bancun Site (Henan,China) by Raman Microscopy

Abstract

Pottery sherds from the archaeological site of Bancun (Henan, China) were analyzed by Raman microscopy and the pigments used in the coating of this ancient (c. 4000–5000 BC) pottery were determined. It was found that bauxite was used to make the white pigment. The black coating was identified as a magnetite and its particle size was in the nanometer range. This work also showed that the size of pigment had influence on the color of the coating. In principle, Raman spectra could be used not only to identify the mineral source of the pigment but also to estimate the particle size of the pigments.     

Ancient shrinking spherical interfaces in the Allen–Cahn flow

We consider the parabolic Allen–Cahn equation in ${\mathbb{R}}^n$, $n\ge 2$,

$u_t=\mathrm{\Delta }u+(1?u^2)u\text{ in }{\mathbb{R}}^n\times (?\infty ,0].$

We construct an ancient radially symmetric solution $u(x,t)$ with any given number k of transition layers between ?1 and +1. At main order they consist of k time-traveling copies of w with spherical interfaces distant $O(\log ?|t|)$ one to each other as $t\to ?\infty$. These interfaces are resemble at main order copies of the shrinking sphere ancient solution to mean the flow by mean curvature of surfaces: $|x|=\sqrt{?2(n?1)t}$. More precisely, if $w(s)$ denotes the heteroclinic 1-dimensional solution of $w^{″}+(1?w^2)w=0$$w(\pm \infty )=\pm 1$ given by $w(s)=\tanh ?\left(\frac{s}{\sqrt{2}}\right)$ we have

$u(x,t)\approx \sum _{j=1}^k{(?1)}^{j?1}w(|x|?{\rho }_j(t))?\frac{1}{2}(1+{(?1)}^k)\text{ as }t\to ?\infty$

where

${\rho }_j(t)=\sqrt{?2(n?1)t}+\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(j?\frac{k+1}{2})\log ?\left(\frac{|t|}{\log ?|t|}\right)+O(1),j=1,\dots ,k.$

     

杭州老虎洞窑古陶瓷成分的化学计量学研究

用支持向量机算法研究了与杭州老虎洞古陶瓷有关的两个断源、断代问题。作为化学计量学的～种新型分类算法,支持向量机在小样本问题上表现出良好的泛化能力,与特征选择方法结合,可以有效处理样本少,特征多的问题。本研究综合利用支持向量机、特征选择算法和其它化学计量学算法研究了杭州凤凰山麓万松岭附近的古窑遗址和“传世哥窑”的断源、断代问题,证明老虎洞窑与郊坛下窑产品截然不同,万松岭附近地面收集瓷片样本是老虎洞窑宋代地层的瓷片滑落所致,而“传世哥窑”样品可能是老虎洞窑元代时的产品。实验表明：支持向量机算法与化学分析相结合可以成为研究古陶瓷断源和断代问题的一种新方法。