Fabrication of a suit of armour at the end of Middle Ages: An extensive archaeometallurgical characterization of the armour of Laval

Bérard, Émilie; Dillmann, Philippe; Renaudeau, Olivier; Verna, Catherine; Toureille, Valérie

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2021.11.008

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…To determine the structure of alloys, metallography is an efficient technique but required to collect samples on the artefacts to access localized information. Furthermore, most ancient ferrous metals being heterogeneous [2,3], it is in many cases necessary to take several samples, to be representative of the whole object [4][5][6]. Sampling possibilities being very limited in case of museum artefact, thus other approaches are needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First examinations of ancient ferrous alloys in Renaissance armour by SR-X-Ray diffraction

et al. 2023

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The paper aims at understanding the nature of ferrous alloys used for the fabrication of Renaissance armour in a Nuremberg workshop, owned by Valentin Siebenbürger. Noninvasive techniques such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) using synchrotron radiation (SR) are well suited to identify the different crystalline phases, characteristic of ancient ferrous alloys, avoiding multiple sampling, rarely allowed in the case of museum pieces. However, such experiment presented analytical challenge due to the complex shape of armours. Our goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of SR-XRD measurement to identify mineral phases contained in ferrous alloys (cementite, ferrite, martensite…) on large and complete museum amour pieces and provide new insights on Renaissance armour manufacturing. The study allowed identifying phases characteristic of ancient ferrous alloys (ferrite, cementite …) but also the presence of heat treatment, on some armour plates, giving new information on manufacturing technique and workshop organization.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First examinations of ancient ferrous alloys in Renaissance armour by SR-X-Ray diffraction

et al. 2023

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“…For example, iron oxide scale residues and fayalitic slag remnants originating from interactions between flux and iron oxide scale during hammer-welding can remain embedded at welding interfaces as forging SI. The analysis of slag inclusions is a powerful tool to investigate the iron-making method and the forging strategy adopted [10,15]. Specifically, smelting and forging-related SI potentially encapsulate a chemical signature and thermochemical information associated with smelting and forging systems, respectively [16].…”

Section: Slag Inclusion Classification and Data Treatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given this scenario, this study aims to provide new deep insights into the iron-making technology and forging techniques employed in the production of breach pikes. To achieve this goal, a breach pike donated from the private collection of the "The Martial Arts Museum" in Botticino (Brescia, northern Italy) was carefully analyzed following a state-ofthe-art methodology based on a metallography and slag inclusions (SI) analysis [6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Manufacturing Process of a Renaissance Breach Pike

Merico,

Faccoli,

Gotti

et al. 2023

Metals

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An archaeometallurgical study of a Renaissance breach pike was performed to elucidate its manufacturing process. Optical microscopy observations and microhardness measurements indicated that the breach pike was forged starting from a heterogeneous steel lump. The microstructural features were compatible with post-forging air cooling. The chemistry of a large set of nonmetallic inclusions was investigated by scanning electron microscopy coupled with X-ray dispersive spectroscopy. Compositional data were analyzed by multivariate statistics to distinguish smelting-related slag inclusions. A logistic regression model indicated that the steel was probably produced by the direct method. The liquidus temperatures of the slag inclusions indicated maximum smelting temperatures in the range of 1200 °C to 1300 °C. A thermodynamic-based model was adopted to estimate the average smelting conditions in terms of temperature and oxygen chemical potential and investigate the disequilibrium of slag inclusion–metal systems. For low-disequilibrium systems, the computed temperature values range between 1095 °C and 1118 °C, while the oxygen chemical potentials (μO2) span from −442 to −374 kJ/mol.

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“…In this paper, we present a first provenance study of thirteen armor from Chalcis in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), based on the analysis of lithophile trace elements in SI, combined with statistical approaches. Our aim is to estimate the variability of the supply sources through the investigation of the metal and compare their chemical signature with reference sets of European armor previously defined (Bérard et al, 2022(Bérard et al, , 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication of a suit of armour at the end of Middle Ages: An extensive archaeometallurgical characterization of the armour of Laval

Cited by 10 publications

References 21 publications

First examinations of ancient ferrous alloys in Renaissance armour by SR-X-Ray diffraction

First examinations of ancient ferrous alloys in Renaissance armour by SR-X-Ray diffraction

Exploring the Manufacturing Process of a Renaissance Breach Pike

War and commercial exchanges in the late medieval Aegean: Investigating the metal provenance of the Chalcis Hoard

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