Excavation archaeological

Figure 2. Map of Kom el Ahmr area at Hierakonpolis showing the partially excavated archaeological areas, including the old temple and the numbered locations from which test cores were taken.

Mr. Aoki tried to conserve excavated archaeological art objects. For instance, an iron sword is at first desalted by the Soxhlet extraction method. After that it is treated with an organofunctional silane followed by impregnation with acrylic resin emulsions the analysis of polymeric material used for these preservations is very important, as in general, polymeric materials are important for the preservation of the art objects. 

Trace-element analysis, using emission spectroscopy (107) and, especially, activation analysis (108) has been appHed in provenance studies on archaeological ceramics with revolutionary results. The attribution of a certain geographic origin for the clay of an object excavated elsewhere has a direct implication on past trade and exchange relationships. 

To enable comparison to this experimental approach, archaeological human bones of various ages and soil properties (Table 9.1) from the Anthropological Collection in Munich were analyzed. All German skeletal series come from humic soil with, neutral to slightly basic pH. The samples from Tinkey, Syria, coastal Pern and Egypt have been buried in dry, sandy soils. Soil samples from most of the excavation sites were available and bone sample... 

The detailed results of the analyses of the excavated human bones and soil samples from the respective archaeological sites are the subject of a forthcoming paper (Balzer et al. 1997, Turban-Just, in prep.). Therefore, only the major topics relating to the experimental approach shall be considered here. 

Soils altered in the past by human habitation are not difficult to find. Farmers in many regions of North America, for example, noted that the soil of old Indian villages was more productive than adjacent soils. The unique properties of soils from ancient inhabited places have frequently been put to use in many places in the world farmers in the Ashdod area in Israel and El Phosfat in Egypt, for example, used the soil that they excavated from ancient archaeological sites to fertilize the land they cultivated (Wright 1986). 

Common ancient ceramic materials often found in archaeological excavations, such as fired brick and pottery, were made mostly from a mixture of a secondary clay and fillers. The nature, composition, and properties of clay have been already discussed the nature of the fillers, the changes undergone by the clay as well as by the fillers during their conversion to ceramics, and the unique properties of ceramic materials, are reviewed in the following pages. Attention is drawn also to studies that provide information on the composition and characteristics of ancient ceramic materials. 

Most ancient wooden objects recovered in archaeological excavations are usually in a decayed, weak, and friable condition that requires stabilization before the objects can be safely handled and studied. Stabilization of wood and decayed wooden objects, generally includes the use of consolidants, liquid solutions of a resin that impregnates and fills gaps in the wood and on drying solidifies, strengthening its fragile, deteriorated structure (Thompson 1991 Rowell and Barbour 1990). 

Walton, P. and G. W. Taylor (1991), The characterization of dyes in textiles from archaeological excavations, Chromatogr. Anal. 17, 6-7. 

Cann, J.R., Dixon, J.E. and Renfrew, C. (1968). Appendix IV the sources of the Saliagos obsidian. In Excavations at Saliagos near Antiparos, ed. Evans, J.D. and Renfrew C., Supplementary Volume 5, British School of Archaeology at Athens, Thames and Hudson, London, pp. 105-107. 

---