Special Issue: Archaeometallurgy

Excerpt

In recent decades, archaeologists, engineers, and scientists were interested in identifying ancient and historic materials and technologies; this led to establishing a branch of archaeology known as archaeological science or archaeometry. Metals have been used since about 10,000 years ago in the ancient world for different purposes and this technology has been developed and improved over time by using native metals (gold and copper), melting and casting techniques, smelting processes of different types of ores, development of different alloys, as well as forming, shaping, and forging techniques and methods. Archaeometallurgy, or the study of ancient metallurgical processes, tries to answer archaeological and historical questions by analysis of different types of metallurgical materials from artifacts to slags, crucibles, and ores. Scientists from different fields apply modern analytical methods to study the chemistry, mineralogy, microstructure, and other properties of metallurgical materials to figure out the processes and techniques used by ancient metalworkers. The questions arising in archaeometallurgical studies are: Which metal/alloy has been used to produce the artifacts? How were the artifacts manufactured or shaped? Where are the raw material resources used to produce metallic artefacts? And where are the artifacts produced? Thanks to the development of analytical techniques in recent decades, archaeometallurgical studies are extended worldwide and we have interesting information about the ancient metallurgical and metalworking processes. Of course, there are many questions that are unanswered and it is necessary to extend field and laboratory works to characterize unidentified aspects of ancient and historic metallurgy around the world. …