Pottery

Bulk (meaning total ) elemental analyses of such are commonly done to try to 

Other studies on stones beyond identification and provenience studies include microscopic studies of use-wear and analysis of possible residues for DNA or other, biologically distinctive organic molecules, which will be separately discussed in a later section. 

Because ceramic raw materials are plastic and may be shaped into virtually any form imaginable, their morphological and functional diversity is enormous, making them among the most studied of aU archaeological materials (Fig. 3.3). Many volumes have been written on the general analysis (e.g., function, style, decoration, methods of manufacture, etc.) and the subject is far too extensive to discuss in detail here. 

The most basic level of analysis, identification of ceramic material, is readily made in the field. The next level of analysis, the raw materials that were used, is usually done to ascertain the geographic source of the pottery. This usually includes morphological and stylistic information that assigns the ceramic to a culture area 

When other materials such as shell or bone or crushed pottery ( grog ) are used as temper, they don t so tightly constrain the geographic origin as rock temper but do sometimes inform us about the ceramic recipe and by inference the culture and geographic region that produced the ceramic. 

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Clays have layers of linked (Al, Si)04 tet-rahedra combined with layers of Mg(OH)2 or AI(0H)3- Clays are very important soil constituents and are used in pottery, ceramics, as rubber, paint, plastic and paper fillers, as adsorbents and in drilling muds. 

Plenary 18. Robin J FI Clark, e-mail address r.i.h.clark ucl.ac.uk (RS). Reports on recent diagnostic probing of art works ranging from illuminated manuscripts, paintings and pottery to papyri and icons. Nondestructive NIR microscopic RS is now realistic using CCD detection. Optimistic about new developments. 

The salts have been used for centuries to produce brilliant and permanent blue colors in porcelain, glass, pottery, tiles, and enamels. It is the principal ingredient in Sevre s and Thenard s blue. A solution of the chloride is used as a sympathetic ink. Cobalt carefully used in the form of the chloride, sulfate, acetate, or nitrate has been found effective in correcting a certain mineral deficiency disease in animals. 

The arc discharge is commonly used to volatilize and ionize thermally intractable inorganic materials such as bone or pottery so that a mass spectrum of the constituent elements can be obtained. 

Eady pottery is rather simple, having Httie surface decoration. Pyrotechnology was comparatively undeveloped and pottery was fired at relatively low temperatures. As kilns became available and were in turn further perfected, higher firing temperatures became attainable, resulting in harder, stronger wares. 

The main use of lead metaborate is in glazes on pottery, porcelain, and chinaware, as weU as in enamels for cast iron. Other appHcations include as radiation-shielding plastics, as a gelatinous thermal insulator containing asbestos fibers for neutron shielding, and as an additive to improve the properties of semiconducting materials used in thermistors (137). 

A plasticizer is a substance the addition of which to another material makes that material softer and more flexible. This broad definition encompasses the use of water to plasticize clay for the production of pottery, and oils to plasticize pitch for caulking boats. A more precise definition of plasticizers is that they are materials which, when added to a polymer, cause an increase in the flexibiUty and workabiUty, brought about by a decrease in the glass-transition temperature, T, of the polymer. The most widely plasticized polymer is poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) due to its excellent plasticizer compatibility characteristics, and the development of plasticizers closely follows the development of this commodity polymer. However, plasticizers have also been used and remain in use with other polymer types. 

The fundamental goal in the production and appHcation of composite materials is to achieve a performance from the composite that is not available from the separate constituents or from other materials. The concept of improved performance is broad and includes increased strength or reinforcement of one material by the addition of another material. This is the well-known purpose in the alloying of metals and in the incorporation of chopped straw into clay for bricks by the ancient Egyptians and plant fibers into pottery by the Incas and Mayans. These ancient productions of composite materials consisted of reinforcing britde materials with fibrous substances. In both cases the mechanics of the reinforcement was such as to reduce and control the production of cracks in the brittle material during fabrication or drying (2). 

True and colloidal Pumpable suspen- Examples filter- 100 mesh or less. Larger than 100 Examples pottery. Examples paper. Examples veneer. 

Sedimentary rocks (like sandstone) have a microstructure rather like that of a vitreous ceramic. Sandstone is made of particles of silica, bonded together either by more silica or by calcium carbonate (CaCOj). Like pottery, it is porous. The difference lies in the way the bonding phase formed it is precipitated from solution in ground water, rather than formed by melting. 

Pottery is one of the oldest materials. Clay artefacts as old as the pyramids (5000 bc) are sophisticated in their manufacture and glazing and shards of pottery of much earlier date are known. Then, as now, the clay was mined from sites where weathering had deposited them, hydroplastieally formed, fired and then glazed. 

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