In defence of Rome: a metallographic investigation of Roman ferrous armour from Northern Britain

Fulford, Michael; Sim, David C.; Doig, Alistair; Painter, Jonathan

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2004.09.003

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Microstructural differences were more evident in the hilt and the blade, according to their function. Both P1 and P2 (Figure 4a,b) showed predominantly pearlite and acicular (Widmanstätten like) ferrite with rare inclusions distributed on its surface, derived from heating above the austenitization temperature (A3 critical point) and cooling comparable to an air quenching, representing the typical microstructure of forged carbon steel [1]. Whereas P1 showed an almost pearlitic microstructure, P2 exhibited a fair distribution of pearlite and ferrite, with small areas of cementite [35].…”

Section: Swords Manufacturing: Microstructural Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study of ancient iron swords is of common interest for the cultural heritage context as it delivers information on the specific metallurgical knowledge of ancient times. Many studies have been performed to find out the metallurgical characteristics of ancient weaponry, most of them using a classical invasive protocol that involves the sampling of representative parts of the object and metallurgical instrumentation to identify its exact manufacturing process [1][2][3][4]. Through microstructural analysis, much information about the forging processes and the thermal treatments can be extracted [5][6][7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Archaeometallurgical Analyses on Two Renaissance Swords from the “Luigi Marzoli” Museum in Brescia: Manufacturing and Provenance

Mori

Ghiara

Montis³

et al. 2021

Heritage

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Two Venetian types of swords coming from the “Luigi Marzoli” Arms Museum in Brescia were characterized in this study, to understand their manufacturing process and to gather information about their provenance. Both the blades and the hilts components are analyzed using a multi-methodological approach, to describe possible differences in the metallurgical features that involved classical metallographic and spectroscopic techniques. Microstructural results indicate a complex process for the manufacturing of the blades, by hot-forging, confirmed by a sequence of different microstructures even on the same sample. Furthermore, an interesting and unusual manufacturing technique is used on one of the pommels, which consists of two hemispheres connected by copper joints. Hypothesis about the ironmaking and the provenience of raw materials are obtained by the features and composition of the inclusions. It is suggested that there is the use of both a direct and an indirect process on the swords. It is likely that the minerals used to obtain iron and copper of the swords come from the mines of the Brescia and Bergamo territories. All the hypotheses are consistent with the historical documents of the time that also give information on the diffusion of such swords in the Brescia area.

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Section: Swords Manufacturing: Microstructural Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeometallurgical Analyses on Two Renaissance Swords from the “Luigi Marzoli” Museum in Brescia: Manufacturing and Provenance

Mori

Ghiara

Montis³

et al. 2021

Heritage

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“…At the beginning of the Christian era, seven metals and some metallic alloys were already widely used 17 . Metallographic 18 examination of Roman ferrous armours from Britain, dating between 100 and 300 AC, indicated a deep understanding of the use of iron and steel associated with their hot or cold-working processing for the production of high-quality thin plates, see Figures 3a and 3b. This knowledge was not surpassed in Europe until the late fifteenth centuries 18 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Metallographic 18 examination of Roman ferrous armours from Britain, dating between 100 and 300 AC, indicated a deep understanding of the use of iron and steel associated with their hot or cold-working processing for the production of high-quality thin plates, see Figures 3a and 3b. This knowledge was not surpassed in Europe until the late fifteenth centuries 18 . The available empirical knowledge on work hardening and recrystallisation of metals and alloys were summarised by Biringuccio 19 published in 1540:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

History of the Recrystallisation of Metals: A Summary of Ideas and Findings until the 1950s

Azevedo

Padilha

2020

Mat. Res.

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The paper reviews the events that led to the understanding of the recrystallisation of metals throughout history, covering the timeline from 3500 BC until the 1950s and dealing mainly with the misconceptions related to the "recrystallisation" and "amorphisation". This history begins with the thermomechanical processing of native metals in pre-Columbian America (3,000 BC), and the production of brass coins in Rome (100 BC). The analysis of the fracture surfaces of metals, commonly used between the 16 th and 18 th centuries in Europe for the quality control of metallic products, is briefly discussed. The observation of crystalline and fibrous fractures lead to the common misconception of the 19 th century that "recrystallisation" takes place during the heating of "amorphous" cold-worked metals. The use of reflecting optical microscopy in the late 19 th century indicated, however, that the plastic deformation only promotes a morphological change in the microstructure of the metals without any "amorphisation". In the early 20 th century, the plastic deformation of metals by crystal plane slipping and twinning was well documented by metallographic observation during tensile testing. Nevertheless, in 1915, Prof. Rosenhain advocated that the "crystal" inside the slip bands of a plastically deformed metal was "amorphous" and responsible for the work hardening. The discovery of the X-ray diffraction technique, in 1913, allowed to resolve the ongoing dispute of the "amorphisation" of metals during plastic deformation. Between the 1920s and 1950s, X-ray diffraction was practically the only means of studying the internal structure of metals to explain the nature of their plasticity, confirming many aspects of the dislocation theory. This technique was crucially important to understand the atomic crystal structure of metals in the annealed and cold-work states. Our history finishes in the 1950s when the transmission electron microscopy finally revealed the first images of dislocation in metals. Up to that date, most of the understanding of the dislocations' distribution and organisation in cold-work and annealed states had already been derived from X-ray diffractograms, which gave birth to the modern physical metallurgy.

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“…Roman nails have been previously studied by many authors (see for example [6][7][8][9]). Studies have shown that, at that time, iron production and processing used to produce nails had become pre-industrial and were already playing a significant part of the economic and military development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

TEM characterization of the fine scale microstructure of a Roman ferrous nail

Douin¹,

Henry²,

Dabosi³

et al. 2010

Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys.

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This paper describes the microstructure of a Roman ferrous nail through its observation by transmission electron microscopy. The morphologies of pearlitic colonies and ferritic grains are detailed and the relationship between pearlitic colonies and ferrite in Roman nails is explicitly demonstrated for the first time. Observations also confirm the presence of dislocations in ferritic grains and attest to the existence of very small carbide precipitates that have not been pointed out previously in standard archaeometric studies.

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In defence of Rome: a metallographic investigation of Roman ferrous armour from Northern Britain

Cited by 11 publications

References 4 publications

Archaeometallurgical Analyses on Two Renaissance Swords from the “Luigi Marzoli” Museum in Brescia: Manufacturing and Provenance

Archaeometallurgical Analyses on Two Renaissance Swords from the “Luigi Marzoli” Museum in Brescia: Manufacturing and Provenance

History of the Recrystallisation of Metals: A Summary of Ideas and Findings until the 1950s

TEM characterization of the fine scale microstructure of a Roman ferrous nail

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