The conjoint application of the voltammetry of immobilized particles (VIMP) methodology and the Mott-Schottky analysis (MS) of impedance data to studying metal corrosion patinas is described. The study is applied to copper and bronze objects exploiting the semiconducting character of cuprite and other copper corrosion products. A simplified theoretical modeling of MS analysis at microparticulate deposits extracted from metal corrosion layers attached to graphite electrodes is provided.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper describes the results obtained from an archaeometric study of a bronze Nuragic small boat model (Sardinia, Italy) dating from the Early Iron Age (presumably 9th-7th centuries BC). The artifact comes from an unknown location in Sardinia and is one of the objects that came to the Museum of Turin in the 19th century. This model is of particular interest as it is a unique Nuragic boat model containing a human figure among its decorations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaterials (Basel)
November 2023
The Moche civilization in Peru developed marvelous metallurgy, primarily using alloys of gold, copper and silver, with the most famous of them called Tumbaga, which resembles pure gold after a depletion process on its surface. However, they also created objects with more standard single-layer alloys or gilding. To distinguish between these techniques in a non-destructive manner is essential.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepleted metals have been produced since many centuries ago. Probably the most famous examples from ancient times are the so-called Tumbaga gold artifacts, whose production was introduced by the pre-Colombian civilizations. Tumbaga-like structures have been identified also in modern nanotechnological materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Nuragic civilization (Sardinia, Italy, XVIII-VIII B.C) developed a flourishing bronze metallurgy with strong connections with other civilizations from the Mediterranean basin. Within the large bronze production, there are some peculiar representations of human figures, known in the archaeological environment of Sardinia as bronzetti, depicting warriors, priests, and offerers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom the availability of metals to the technology and tools needed to transform them, roughly every civilization in the Mediterranean basin has a metalsmith story. Many of the objects produced by them share a few peculiar characteristics, usages, or even shapes. In this scenario, a class of objects that can be clustered by their usage, i.
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