A Catalogue of Important Nigerian Copper‐alloy Castings Dated by Thermoluminescence

Willett, Frank; Fleming, S. J.

doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.1976.tb00156.x

Cited by 21 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Fleming (1979) discussed at length the results of numerous examples of both dating of archaeological material and detection of fakes in the art world. The book contains a number of examples where fakes were detected, including recent studies of Chinese ceramics (Fleming et al 1970), terracotta panels beneath Etruscan wall‐paintings (Fleming et al 1971), Renaissance terracottas (Fleming and Stoneham 1973b) and sand cores from inside bronze heads from Benin (Willett and Fleming 1976).…”

Section: The First 22 Years 1957–1979mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fifty Years of Luminescence Dating*

Wintle

2008

Archaeometry

144

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Luminescence techniques for dating both heated materials (e.g., pottery and burnt stone) and sediments have gone through three phases in the past 50 years. The first 22 years, from 1957 to 1979, were devoted to thermoluminescence (TL) techniques applied to heated material. In the next six years, from 1979 to 1985, it was found that TL dating could be applied to sediments. However, the TL signals of both quartz and feldspar grains observed for modern sediments were small, but were not zero, thus making them useful only for older sediments. A new luminescence signal that was totally zeroed by exposure to sunlight for a relatively short period of time, a few hours or less, was found; this led to the development of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating techniques in 1985. Further developments have continued to the present day. Within the past 22 years, 1999 was also a year with major developments. A reliable procedure for single aliquots of quartz that have a rapidly bleached ('fast') OSL component was formalized and an instrument that allowed rapid measurement of equivalent doses for single grains was constructed. These developments have led to OSL becoming a major dating tool in Quaternary geology, at least for the past 100 000 years, and in archaeology, particularly as related to the dispersal of modern humans.

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Section: The First 22 Years 1957–1979mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fifty Years of Luminescence Dating*

Wintle

2008

Archaeometry

144

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“…Metallurgical analyses and thermoluminescent dating, carried out more intensively in recent decades [e.g. Willett and Fleming 1976], offer objective data for chronology [Craddock and Picton 1986]. Thus far they appear to support the general outlines of the more subjective stylistic sequences earlier proposed by various scholars [Dark, 1973;1975;Elisofon and Fagg 1958;Fagg 1963;Tunis 1981;1983;1984].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Benin art revisited: Photographs and museum collections

Kaplan

1991

Visual Anthropology

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Sometimes surprising results were obtained in doing ethnographic fieldwork among the Benin people of southern Nigeria by using photographs of art objects seized by a British military expeditionary force against the Benin kingdom, in 1897. These results have import for the documentation of museum collections today. The more than two thousand objects taken from the Oba's palace in 1897, dating from the 16th to 19th centuries, were sold to offset the expedition's expenses and subsequently entered European and American museums around the turn of the century with little documentation. Photographs are here used to revisit Benin art and to probe the events represented, the identity of persons portrayed, and the content and meaning of the objects collected. Ethnohistoric photographs as well as studio portraits, made available in Nigeria, were used in this study along with field photographs. Specific objects reveal continuities and discontinuities of form and meaning, and manifest the effects of conquest and colonialism. The value of photographs as a research technique and as a means of documenting museum collections is affirmed.

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“…Engendering as much historical misconception, the illicit excavations in the 1980s and early 1990s of Nigerian sites as a result of the strong demand of the art market for Jenne‐jeno terracottas (McIntosh and McIntosh 1986) encouraged the production of high‐quality fakes (Sidibé 1995). TL dating of the traded objects separated forgeries from genuine objects (Fagg and Fleming 1970; Fleming and Stoneham 1973a; Willet and Fleming 1976; Fleming and Fagg 1977; Calvocoressi and David 1979) and largely contributed to the correct chronological classification of the terracotta figurines (De Grunne 1995). However, the accreditation of these genuine objects by TL not only increased the demand for such pieces on the art market, but also gave rise to a new industry of forgeries, in which genuine terracottas were cut into pieces to be included in non‐authentic pieces in areas where samples were usually taken for TL tests (Brent 2001).…”

Section: The Antiquities Market Versus Archaeometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeometry and Museums: Fifty Years of Curiosity and Wonder*

Guerra

2008

Archaeometry

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Artefacts and works of art kept in museum collections originated in many cases from ancient private collections. In such cases, a partial or total absence of historical information may create additional problems concerning their authenticity. The study of museum collections and their preservation requires the use of analytical techniques but also combined examination techniques not commonly necessary for the study of archaeological objects. This paper gives an overview of the importance of museum items for the understanding of the past, the difficulties relating to their authentication and the significant advances brought about by science‐based techniques, in particular those cases discussed in Archaeometry during the past 50 years.

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A Catalogue of Important Nigerian Copper‐alloy Castings Dated by Thermoluminescence

Cited by 21 publications

References 11 publications

Fifty Years of Luminescence Dating*

Fifty Years of Luminescence Dating*

Benin art revisited: Photographs and museum collections

Archaeometry and Museums: Fifty Years of Curiosity and Wonder*

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