Dear Comrades: please find this posting concerning a summer course in
ancient metals: please pass on the information to any students who may
be interested in attending: with all best wishes, David.
SUMMER COURSE: ANCIENT AND HISTORIC METALS: TECHNOLOGY,
MICROSTRUCTURE, AND CORROSION.
Summer School in Ancient and Historic Metals: 2009
Held at UCLA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
Instructor: Professor David A. Scott
Monday 6th July – Saturday 11th July
Course Aims: This six-day course will act both as an introduction
and a focus of more intensive study dealing with the examination,
analysis, metallographic examination and deterioration of ancient
and historic metals. The course is designed to benefit
conservators, scientists and archaeologists who wish to learn how
to prepare metallic samples for metallographic study, learn
something of the technological aspects of the working and structure
of metals, and how corrosion and patination can be discussed and
examined.
Artefacts for examination: Over the past 26 years an unrivalled
collection of mounted metallographic samples has been assembled,
which are studied as part of the course practical work, involving
both polarized light microscopy and metallographic microscopy of
both freshly polished and etched samples. These samples range from
cast iron from China to wootz steel from India, bronze coinage
alloys from the Roman Empire to high-tin bronze from ancient
Thailand, silver alloys from the Parthian period to ancient Ecuador,
gilded copper and tumbaga from Peru and Colombia, to mention only a
few of the geographical areas covered by available samples. Course
participants will be instructed in the use of polishing and etching
in the examination of samples and are encouraged to keep digital
images of the samples they have prepared during the week. Students
may also bring their own samples for examination if mounted and
ground, or if not mounted, then one or two samples may be brought
which can be mounted and prepared during the course.
Course Instructor:
David A. Scott, Director of the MA program in
Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation. His book, Copper
and Bronze in Art: Corrosion, Colorants, Conservation won the
prize from the Association of American Publishers as the best
Scholarly/Art book published in the USA in 2002. Professor
Scott has published over 90 papers in the peer-reviewed
literature and is an Editor for the journal ‘Studies in
Conservation’.
Course Schedule: The course will be held over the six days from
6th July to the 11th July 2009. The course will be held at the Cotsen
Institute
of Archaeology, located in the basement of the Fowler Museum
Building at the UCLA campus in Los Angeles from 9:15am-5pm each day.
The course is open to a maximum of 10 participants only.
Course Costs: The cost of the instruction for the six days will be
$800.00. For details of payment and to register for this course, as
well as to receive leaflets on local housing and hotels, please
contact the course organizer and director:
Professor David A. Scott,
Room A410,
The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA
405 Hilgard Avenue,
Los Angeles CA 90095-1510, USA
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Course Details:
Monday:
Introduction, use of the metallurgical microscope, the mounting
and polishing of samples, their preparation, use of resins,
grinding and polishing. Introduction to phase diagrams and
their application to ancient bronzes and copper alloys.
Copper-arsenical, copper-nickel, and copper-tin alloys. Casting
and working of metals and aspects of bronze casting in the
ancient world. Etching of some copper alloys. Recording of
samples with digital camera and case studies in the examination
of a group of copper alloy plaques and a bronze figurine of the
God Osiris will be discussed.
Tuesday:
Continuation of the examination of copper-tin and
copper-tin-lead alloys. Ancient coinage alloys of the Roman
period, examination of copper-arsenic bronzes, aspects of the
corrosion of bronze and copper alloys. The Pourbaix diagram and
some of its applications. The extraction of metals from their
ores and some principles of the Ellingham diagram.
Wednesday:
The phase diagram for copper-silver and lead-tin alloys.
Examination of silver and debased silver alloys. Surface
enrichment and corrosion. Problems in the authentication of
ancient silver and bronze alloys. Metallographic examination
of ancient silver alloys and techniques of etching silver.
Discontinuous precipitation phenomena and the age of silver
alloys. Colour etching of both copper alloys and silver
alloys. The Philosopher plate and the Strozzi silver basin:
case studies from the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Thursday:
Mounting of samples brought by students. Examination of some
ternary phase issues in relation to gold-silver-copper alloys.
The corrosion of tumbaga alloys and aspects of the Pourbaix
diagram. Video concerning the extraction of iron and steel.
Introduction to iron and steel. The principles of corrosion
and the eight types of corrosion of metals. The examination of
iron from meteorites. The technology of ancient iron and steel
in the West, in India and in China will be contrasted and
samples illustrating these different technologies examined. The
metallography of ancient iron alloys.
Friday:
Corrosion issues of iron and steel. Weathering steel and
patinas, the nature of iron corrosion products and their
implications for the stabilization of iron artefacts during
conservation treatments. Problems with the examination of lead,
lead-tin, zinc, and aluminium alloys. The reasons why brass
was made by cementation, the extraction of metallic zinc and
examination of samples of brass alloys. The use of solders and
aspects of tinning of ancient bronzes. Examination of mounted
specimens prepared on the Tuesday, and continuation of
practical metallography.
Saturday:
Gold and gold alloys: gilding: examination of gold alloys.
Lecture on the technology of ancient gold alloys in South
America. Continuation of metallographic practical examination.
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