Application of Compositional Analysis to the Study of Materials and Objects of Art and Archaeology

Abstract

AbstractArchaeologists, art historians and art conservators are almost constantly concerned with the questions of where, when and by whom the objects within their care were made. Knowledge of the conditions under which the objects were found may not answer these questions, as the objects may have traveled extensively or have existed for some time before they arrived at sites where they were discovered. Stylistic considerations often can provide answers, but not infallibly, as styles were sometimes copied at locations and at times quite different from those for which they were most characteristic. Compositional analysis can often help provide answers to these questions because traditions in the use of particular materials have often persisted in and accordingly have been characteristic of particular regions, periods and even of particular workshops. For example, the deliberate alloying of copper with tin, arsenic, antimony, lead and/or zinc has varied greatly from region to region and from time to time.