The Materials Science-Based Archaeology Group
The Materials Science-Based Archaeology Group is concerned with the
investigation of all aspects of the metallurgical process, from smelting
to metal finishing, and from the first use of alloys in the 5th/4th millennia
BC to the Industrial Revolution. The themes of the research can be broadly
labelled as archaeological and metallurgical. In archaeology the research
derives from post-excavation and museum-based projects involving the characterization
of the products and residues of past metallurgical processes. The results
are used to explore the place of metals in ancient economies and societies,
how they were made, used, traded and re-cycled, how their properties were
understood, and what processes were associated with their deposition and
survival in the archaeological record. This work is supported by experiments
designed to relate this material to the process variables which shaped
its formation. These experiments also form a link with the metallurgical
objectives of the group. These are to acquire a deep knowledge of the physical
and mechanical metallurgy of the metals used in the past, so that we can
see how they were understood in the past. The results can be surprising
and demand novel research, for example to determine why some alloys have
exceptional ductility. This work also links directly with other areas of
metallurgy by extending to 6x103 years the time range available
for studying a variety of room temperature phenomena from corrosion to
precipitation, and with results applicable in such diverse fields as electronic
packaging and the storage of nuclear waste.
© JPN & C. J.S - University of Oxford 1998
chris.salter@materials.ox.ac.uk