The early history of chemistry in the service of archaeology

Abstract

Examines 19th and early 20th century contributions of chemistry to archaeology, particularly those of Berthelot.

Ötzi, the Tyrolean Iceman

“…Overviews of these early wet-chemistry investigations can be found in Caley (1951Caley ( , 1967, Rice (1987), Pollard et al (2007), and Pollard and Heron (2008), but three of these initial studies are worth mentioning specifically because the principles used in separating the component molecules in archaeological residues from one another were established in the early twentieth century.…”

Archaeometallurgical characterisation of Donatello's Florentine copper alloy masterpieces using portable laser-induced plasma spectroscopy and traditional techniques

“…Important contributions to knowledge of historic metal production had already been made during the nineteenth century (Caley, 1967;and references therein). Conversely, little attention was dedicated to the technology of Renaissance and Mannerist masterpieces up to the end of World War II.…”

Acknowledging Fifty Years of Neutron Activation Analysis in Archaeology

“…Archaeologists, historians, chemists and physicists have employed a variety of chemical and physical approaches to study artefacts and historical objects since at least the late 18th century (Caley 1949, 1951, 1962, 1967; Harbottle 1976). During the past 50 years, compositional analyses of archaeological materials have increasingly been used to address a broad spectrum of anthropological topics, including exchange, provenance and manufacturing technology.…”