Thilo Rehren
Biographic Data
| ID | 83383 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thilo Rehren |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thilo |
| FAMILY NAME | Rehren |
| SIGNATURE | REHREN T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cyprus Institute |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9169-1198 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 167 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1336 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 166 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 20 |
Multiple metallurgies in Medieval Tamdult, a mining, smelting and caravan town in southern Morocco
The early Islamic settlement of Tamdult in southern Morocco is at the centre of an archaeological mining-metallurgical landscape with strong evidence for the production and working of lead, silver, copper and brass. Here, we provide an overview of the various metallurgies identified, and discuss their likely common origin from a sulfidic complex lead-zinc-copper ore mineralisation, leading to two distinct primary products: silver pellets and bras…
Aesthetics and technology
Among the many spectacular finds associated with the mausoleum of China's First Emperor (259–210 BCE), by far the most well-known are the life-sized clay soldiers known as the Terracotta Army. However, also widely depicted in popular portrayals, and extremely important scientifically are two intricately made, half-sized bronze models, of a lighter chariot and a heavier two-wheeled cart. Among the huge number of components brought together to make…
Plant-ash glass in Natronland
This article examines available evidence for the use of plant ashes in glassmaking in the Mediterranean basin and Europe from the 1st to the 8th-9th century CE. During this period, glassmaking in these regions was overwhelmingly dominated by mineral fluxes, primarily natron, but the chemical composition of some glasses found in secure archaeological contexts suggests the use of plant ashes in these glasses, which are, on the other hand, compositi…
Technical ceramics from late period to Roman Kom Tuman (Memphis), Egypt, reveal collocation of multiple high-temperature industries
Apart from palatial and military archaeological contexts, the Kom Tuman sector of ancient Memphis features an industrial area formed by several high-temperature production and processing workshops of different specializations, operating from the Late period (ca. 664 BCE–ca. 332 BCE) to Hellenistic and Roman times. The study of crucible fragments from these workshops identified a range of coexisting activities, including glass working and metalwor…
Glass as a chronological indicator. Macroscopic and compositional features of Hellenistic, Roman and modern glass fragments from Idalion (Cyprus)
Small-Scale Copper Production in Late Roman Pyrga, Cyprus
Copper was central to the Late Roman Cypriot economy, represented by large-scale production sites. This study examines often-overlooked small-scale mining by focusing on Pyrga in the Pouzis Valley, Southeast Cyprus. Surveys by the Hala Sultan Tekke Hinterland Survey Project (2021–ongoing) revealed dispersed slag heaps near potential church remains. Metal slag analysis reveals a consistent manganese-rich composition and low residual copper, sugges…
Archaeometallurgical production remains in India
A Northern Connection
Eighteen fragments of glass and vitreous materials from the Warring States period Feihu cemetery, Chengdu Plain, were analysed by LA‐ICP‐MS, SEM‐EDS and XRD. The assemblage comprises potassium‐silica‐lime faience and glass, low‐calcium soda‐lead‐barium faience and glass, and Han blue. Their major and trace element signatures correspond closely with comparable materials from northwestern China. This study presents the first tentative evidence for …
Copper smelting on Dhaskalio, Keros
How global is archaeological science
Challenging the boom-and-bust models? The fourth millennium BC copper mine of Curak in south-west Serbia
Despite an early surge in copper-ore mining during the sixth and fifth millennia BC (the 'boom'), evidence for metal production in the Balkans dwindles in the fourth millennium (the 'bust'). Here, the authors present new evidence for copper mining at Curak in south-west Serbia, c. 3800 cal BC, during this apparent downturn. By integrating field surveys, excavations and provenance analyses, they explore activity at the site, challenging the visibi…
Soda-lime glass trade across the Eurasian Steppe during the 4th to 5th century CE
Beyond linear narratives
Levantine pioneering industry
Glass ornaments in the Late Islamic period
Encyclopedia of Archaeology
Surface matters
Wootz, the Indian crucible steel, is a hypereutectoid iron–carbon alloy and famous for its outstanding qualities. Due to the paucity of archaeological and historical ingot finds and conservative sampling strategies, discussions of the homogeneity of such ingots and the microstructural representativeness of samples have remained generic and assumptive. Thus two major shortcomings in the study of crucible steel ingots include the determination of t…
Estimating carbon content in crucible steel using image analysis
Pre-industrial crucible steel ingots, produced in both Central and South Asia, are an important class of iron-carbon alloys. Their microstructure reflects their formation from a liquid alloy at a carbon content of 1.0–2.5wt%, which is higher than most mild steels but lower than most cast irons. This article introduces a tool to quantify the carbon content of such alloys based on an operator-supervised image analysis which determines the relative …
Making and working Egyptian blue – a review of the archaeological evidence
Late Roman metallurgical site patterns, the case studies of two smelting sites in Western Cyprus
Archaeology and alchemy applied
Metal prills in primary glass
Late Roman copper smelting in Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus
Agricola and Zwickau
The technology of brass production in the Renaissance has received only little \nattention so far. This paper concentrates on late 15th-century brass production by studying \ncrucibles recovered in Zwickau (SE Germany). Their scientific analysis by optical microscopy, \nED-XRF and SEM-EDX is presented in conjunction with a little known text on brass making \nwritten by Agricola in the mid 16th century. As a result, two main crucible types are def…
Archives and Urban Archaeology
On the origins of extractive metallurgy
Ancient glass
Research over the last few decades has greatly enhanced our understanding of the production and distribution of glass across time and space, resulting in an almost kaleidoscopically colourful and complex picture. We now recognise several major ‘families’ of glass composition, including plant-ash based glass in Late Bronze Age Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the Islamic World; mineral natron glass in the Greek, Roman and Byzantine Empires; mineral-base…
Forty Thousand Arms for a Single Emperor
The Provenance, Use, and Circulation of Metals in the European Bronze Age
Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeological and science-based research for well over a century. Archaeometallurgical studies have largely focused on determining the geological origin of the constituent metals, copper and tin, and their movement from producer to consumer sites. More recently, the effects of recycling, both temporal and spatial, on the composition of the circulating metal sto…
Large scale smelting of speiss and arsenical copper at Early Bronze Age Arisman, Iran
Prehistoric copper production and technological reproduction in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of Central Thailand
The production of speiss (iron arsenide) during the Early Bronze Age in Iran
A (not so) dangerous method
Analysis of metal objects with portable and handheld X-ray fluorescence spectrometry has become increasingly popular in recent years. Here, methodological concerns that apply to non-destructive, surface examination with XRF instruments of ancient metal artefacts are discussed based on the comparative analyses of a set of copper-based objects by means of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and electron probe microanalyser (EPMA). The analytical inv…
Herding cats – Roman to Late Antique glass groups from Bubastis, northern Egypt
Eighty-seven glass fragments from Roman and Late Antique layers at Tell Basta/Bubastis in the Eastern Nile Delta were typologically evaluated and chemically analysed to determine chronological and compositional patterns of glass use at this important Egyptian city, and how this relates to larger pattern of glass production and consumption in the first half of the first millennium AD. Bubastis is situated in geographical proximity to Alexandria, a…
Shades of blue – cobalt-copper coloured blue glass from New Kingdom Egypt and the Mycenaean world
Variability in single smelting episodes – a pilot study using iron slag from Uganda
Early primary glass production in southern Nigeria
Fragmentary glass-working crucibles, drawn glass beads and ritual glass objects (aje ileke) from Ile-Ife, southwestern Nigeria, were analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The very unusual high-lime, high-alumina glass lining the crucibles matched the composition of the dark blue drawn beads and some of the blue and green glass fragments in the aje ileke. Similar cr…
Changes in glass consumption in Pergamon (Turkey) from Hellenistic to late Byzantine and Islamic times
We present compositional data for nearly 100 glass samples from Pergamon, western Turkey, spanning 1500 years from the Hellenistic to Late Byzantine and Islamic periods. The data shows the use of already-known Roman glass groups during the first half of the time frame, for imported vessels as well as locally worked glass. No compositional change is seen related to the introduction of glass blowing for either of the glass groups in use during this…
Tainted ores and the rise of tin bronzes in Eurasia, c . 6500 years ago
The earliest tin bronze artefacts in Eurasia are generally believed to have appeared in the Near East in the early third millennium BC. Here we present tin bronze artefacts that occur far from the Near East, and in a significantly earlier period. Excavations at Pločnik, a Vinča culture site in Serbia, recovered a piece of tin bronze foil from an occupation layer dated to the mid fifth millennium BC. The discovery prompted a reassessment of 14 ins…
The earliest high-fired glazed ceramics in China
Interactions between silicate and salt melts in LBA glassmaking
Copper for the Pharaoh
Ile-Ife and Igbo Olokun in the history of glass in West Africa
Rationales in Old World Base Glass Compositions
Hanzhong bronzes and highly radiogenic lead in Shang period China
Compositional identification of 6th c. AD glass from the Lower Danube
A group of finds (vessels, raw glass chunks, window panes) from three sites in present-day Bulgaria was selected as representative of the circulation and usage of glass in the Lower Danube region during the 6th c. AD. In total, 79 samples were analysed by EPMA and/or LA-ICP-MS techniques. The data quality was assessed for each analytical run according to the measurement of reference glasses and to pairs of results obtained from representative sam…
Computer vision, archaeological classification and China's terracotta warriors
Structure-from-motion and multiview-stereo together offer a computer vision technique for reconstructing detailed 3D models from overlapping images of anything from large landscapes to microscopic features. Because such models can be generated from ordinary photographs taken with standard cameras in ordinary lighting conditions, these techniques are revolutionising digital recording and analysis in archaeology and related subjects such as palaeon…
Isotopic and technological variation in prehistoric Southeast Asian primary copper production
New light on the early Islamic West African gold trade
Tadmekka, a town at the southern edge of the Sahara desert, has produced good evidence for making gold coins in the ninth-tenth century AD, the first concrete proof of coinage in pre-colonial West Africa. These were produced by melting gold dust or nuggets in ceramic moulds, similar to those used for the first pellet-like coinage of the European Iron Age. The authors suggest these coins were not political statements, but were probably blank and i…
Years old Egyptian iron beads made from hammered meteoritic iron
The earliest known iron artefacts are nine small beads securely dated to circa 3200 BC, from two burials in Gerzeh, northern Egypt. We show that these beads were made from meteoritic iron, and shaped by careful hammering the metal into thin sheets before rolling them into tubes. The study demonstrates the ability of neutron and X-ray methods to determine the nature of the material even after complete corrosion of the iron metal. The iron beads we…
The Composition of Gold from the Ancient Mining District of Verespatak/Roşia MontanĂ, Romania
Fourth Millennium Bc Silver From Tell Esh‐shuna, Jordan
Analytical and contextual details are given for a piece of silver sheet recovered by dry‐sieving from a fourth millennium B.C. deposit at Tell esh‐Shuna in the north Jordan Valley. Analysis proved that the fragment was composed of a silver‐gold‐copper alloy. The possible origin of such aurian silver artefacts is considered in the light of current geological evidence, and alternative mechanisms for their appearance reviewed, taking into considerat…
New Kingdom Glass-Melting Crucibles from Qantir-Piramesses
Recent work at Qantir-Piramesses revealed a group of crucibles related to glass-working. At least 40 individual crucibles were identified, dating to the reign of Ramesses II or slightly earlier. They are almost cylindrical in shape. The fabric was a local Nile clay (Vienna Nile E) without much visible temper. Most fragments are coated on the inside with a white layer. The crucibles resemble finds from Tell el-Amarna, also attributed to New Kingdo…
New Kingdom Glass-Melting Crucibles from Qantir-Piramesses
Ramesside Glass‐colouring Crucibles
The preparation of glass in New Kingdom Egypt heavily involved the use of crucibles. Shape, mode of operation and function of these vessels have been reconstructed on the basis of new, stratified material from the excavation at Qantir, eastern Nile Delta. The crucible fabric, the internal layer protecting the vessel from the charge, and the glass melted in the crucibles are characterized by chemical and petrographic studies. The crucibles were ap…
Cupel and crucible
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Litharge from Laurion. A medical and metallurgical commodity from South Attika
Introduction to Select Papers Delivered at the 1996 International Symposium on Archaeometry, Held at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Small Size, Large Scale Roman Brass Production in Germania Inferior
Roads to riches
Rationales in Old World Base Glass Compositions
Archaeometallurgy - an island
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Aspects of the Production of Cobalt‐blue Glass in Egypt
Cobalt‐blue glass of the Near and Middle Eastern Late Bronze Age has long been recognized as compositionally distinct from other contemporary glasses (Sayre 1967; Lilyquist et al. 1993). It has been suggested recently by Shortland and Tite (2000) that this chemical distinction reflects the use of Egyptian raw materials for making these glasses, different from those used to make glass in Mesopotamia, or its manufacture by Mesopotamian workmen, pos…
As similar as black and white
Object Integrity; or Why Do We Excavate
The Production of Lead–Tin Yellow at Merovingian Schleitheim (Switzerland)
A Merovingian crucible fragment, with internally adhering yellow glass, and yellow glass beads of the same region and period were investigated by non‐destructive XRF, optical microscopy and SEM‐EDS. Although the microstructure and chemical composition of the yellow pigment (lead–tin yellow type II, ‘PbSnO 3 ’) are almost identical in both the beads and the crucible, in the latter the pigment occurs in a much higher concentration. However, the gla…
Ores, Furnaces, Slags, and Prehistoric Societies
Red glass for the Pharaoh
Diversifying the picture
There is a growing interest in cultural contact between indigenous peoples and Europeans following their arrival in the New World. In this article the authors explore local responses to European arrival in Cuba, through analysis of metalwork found in indigenous graves. These studies demonstrate that the local communities valued particular metals quite differently from the Europeans, as the imported materials were incorporated into pre-existing sy…
Iron smelting in pre-colonial Zimbabwe
Early primary glass production in southern Nigeria
Fragmentary glass-working crucibles, drawn glass beads and ritual glass objects (aje ileke) from Ile-Ife, southwestern Nigeria, were analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The very unusual high-lime, high-alumina glass lining the crucibles matched the composition of the dark blue drawn beads and some of the blue and green glass fragments in the aje ileke. Similar cr…
Metals, microanalysis and meaning
The Marie Curie programme at the Institute of Archaeology 2004-2008
The Marie Curie Early Stage Training (MEST) projects, run by the European Commission, offer training opportunities to young scientists from EU member states and sometimes also from non-European countries. The Institute of Archaeology hosted one such project between 2004 and 2008, which is described here by its Principal Investigator
Shorter Notices
Report on the First Iranian Prehistoric Slag Workshop
In December of 2006, a small workshop was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology to bring together established and emerging scholars currently working on ancient Iranian metallurgy, most especially those focused on the production debris (i.e., slag, furnace lining, etc.). This paper presents a summary of that meeting in order to introduce these scholars to the wider archaeological audience, and to provide a basic idea of the sorts of questions …
Archaeology (110 works) · Metallurgy (86 works) · History (84 works) · Materials Science (84 works) · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis (80 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (76 works) · Geography (75 works) · Geology (60 works) · Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts (56 works) · History (48 works)