Ian C Freestone
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 81916 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Ian C Freestone |
| NOMBRES | Ian C |
| APELLIDO | Freestone |
| FIRMA | FREESTONE I C |
| AFILIACIONES | British Museum |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8223-4649 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 67 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 824 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 67 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1982 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 16 |
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…
Gold and sweat
The patination of copper alloys using chemical means to turn their surfaces black is well-documented historically in China and Japan, and purportedly used in ancient Egypt, Greece, Mycenae, and the Roman world, but we know remarkably little about the origins and eventual transmission of this technology. To solve this question, there is the need to compare the materials and technologies used in different cultures, as well as to understand the corr…
Composition and origin of the first millennium AD glass uncovered at Khirbet adh-Dharih, south Jordan
A glimmer of the eastern Adriatic
Kairouan and the medieval ceramic industry in Tunisia
Wood ash tempering in archaeological ceramics
The technology of polychrome glazed ceramics in Ifriqiya
Ifriqiya (roughly Tunisia and eastern Algeria) is believed to have played a significant role in the diffusion of ceramic glazed technologies into other regions of the Western Mediterranean. However, due to limited analysis on North African glazed ceramics, its role in technology transfer remains poorly understood. This paper uses SEM–EDS and petrographic analyses to understand the technology employed in the production of Tunisian ceramics through…
Composition and affinities of glass from the Ma'agan Mikhael B shipwreck, Israel
Material recovered from the Ma'agan Mikhael B shipwreck, off the coast of northern Israel, includes a significant assemblage of glass, which appears to represent waste workshop material (cullet) collected for recycling. Twenty‐three samples were selected for analysis for major and minor elements using SEM‐EDS, to provide insight into the activities and dating of the ship. The glass corresponds to known primary glass types, comprising a high‐ and …
Shattered glass of Beirut
The Archaeological Museum at the American University of Beirut (AUB) lies approximately 3 km west of the main port of Beirut, the site of the massive explosion that sent a catastrophic shockwave through the city on 4 August 2020. A display case containing Classical and early Islamic period glass vessels was smashed against the museum’s stone floor, shattering 72 vessels into thousands of shards. This paper overviews how the Archaeological Museum …
Glass production at Jalame, Israel
Following an initial micro-XRF assay, 42 samples of glass from the twentieth-century excavations of the fourth-century CE production site at Jalame, Israel, were selected and analysed by EPMA, with subsets for trace elements by LA-ICP-MS (n=29 samples) and for Hf isotopes by MC-ICP-MS (n=6). Comparison of major elements for ten samples originally measured in Brill (1988) was good, although the earlier SiO2 values are slightly high. Analyses of fu…
The Path to Porcelain
Ancient Glass of South Asia
Reviewed by: Ancient Glass of South Asia: Archaeology, Ethnography and Global Connections ed. by Alok Kumar Kanungo and Laure Dussubieux Ian C. Freestone Ancient Glass of South Asia: Archaeology, Ethnography and Global Connections. Alok Kumar Kanungo and Laure Dussubieux, eds. Singapore: Springer, 2021. xxvi + 557 pp., 59 b&w + 245 colour illustrations. Hardcover US $160, ISBN 9789811636554; softcover US $140, ISBN 9789811636578; ebook US $109, I…
Glass in African Archaeology
Diverse strategies for copper production in Chalcolithic Iberia
Our understanding of early copper metallurgy in the Iberian Peninsula is mostly based on analysis from well-studied regions in the Southeast and Southwest. This paper focuses on two recently recovered Chalcolithic metallurgical assemblages outside these traditional research foci: two slagged crucibles from Lugar Viejo III (Zaragoza) and two large slag cakes from Cueva del Cañaveralejo (Córdoba). Analysis of the compositions and microstructures of…
Composition of glass bracelets and rings from the Ayyubid-Mamluk cemetery at Dohaleh, north Jordan
Exotic glass types and the intensity of recycling in the northwest Quarter of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan)
Major and trace elements are presented for 149 glass fragments ranging in date from the Roman to Early Islamic periods (1st – mid-8th centuries CE), excavated during the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project's fieldwork between 2011 and 2016. The results confirm a clear dominance of Levantine glass types, but also reveal 12 glasses of Egyptian and Mesopotamian compositions recovered from two houses destroyed by the major earthquake which…
Dating Nathan
Relatively little is known about stained glass windows in England predating c. 1170; however, art-historical evaluation by Caviness (1987) argued that four figures from the “Ancestors series” of Canterbury Cathedral, usually dated to the late 12th and early 13th century, in fact date earlier (c. 1130–1160). This would place them amongst the earliest stained glass in England, and the world. Building on our previous work, we address Caviness’s hypo…
Raw materials and technology of Medieval Glass from Venice
A glass workshop in ‘Aqir, Israel and a new type of compositional contamination
The blues of Romuliana
The paper presents a set of glass fragments excavated at several different locations within and outside the late Roman fortified imperial residence Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia). This small group of eighteen fragments and mosaic glass tesserae are distinguished by their cobalt blue colour. The majority of the finds are mosaic tesserae (six pcs) and sheets of glass (five pcs), which could be related to architectural decoration (sectilia pane…
High‐temperature performance of two‐layered ceramics and the implications for Roman crucibles
Roman metalworking crucibles are frequently characterized by an extra outer layer of clay, applied to a pre‐formed vessel. Three‐point bending and standardized dead‐weight loading tests were conducted to determine the advantages offered by the extra outer layer. Deformation and fracture behaviour, at temperatures up to 1100°C, of two‐layer, monolithic and tempered‐monolithic briquettes were compared. Measurements indicated that the two‐layer briq…
The introduction of celadon production in North China
Regional patterns in medieval European glass composition as a provenancing tool
Developments in Ceramic Technology in North China in the Sixth Century C.E
Characterisation of Byzantine and early Islamic primary tank furnace glass
Natron as a flux in the early vitreous materials industry
Glass groups, glass supply and recycling in late Roman Carthage
Carthage played an important role in maritime exchange networks during the Roman and late antique periods. One hundred ten glass fragments dating to the third to sixth centuries CE from a secondary deposit at the Yasmina Necropolis in Carthage have been analysed by electron microprobe analysis (EPMA) to characterise the supply of glass to the city. Detailed bivariate and multivariate data analysis identified different primary glass groups and rev…
Natron glass production and supply in the late antique and early medieval Near East
Palestine and Egypt supplied the Mediterranean and Europe with virtually all of its glass for most of the first millennium CE. While the Muslim conquest in the 7th century saw major political and economic adjustment, immediate changes to material culture appear to have been minimal. This paper examines the impact of the Byzantine-Islamic transition on the natron glass industry of Palestine from the 7th to 12th century. A series of 133 well-contex…
Lead Glazes in Antiquity—methods of Production and Reasons for Use
Transparent high lead and tin‐opacified lead‐alkali glazes have been extensively used throughout Europe and the Near East from their first appearance in the Roman era and the tenth‐ to eleventh‐century Islamic world, respectively, up until the present day. Using, to a large extent, information which is widely scattered through a diverse range of literature, the methods employed in the production of these two glaze types are first outlined and the…
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…
Strontium Isotopes in the Investigation of Early Glass Production
87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios have been determined for glasses from four production sites, dated to between the sixth and the 11th centuries, in the Eastern Mediterranean region. On the basis of elemental analyses, the glasses at each location are believed to have been melted from different raw materials. Two glass groups, from Bet Eli‘ezer and Bet She‘an, in Israel, are believed to have been based upon mixtures of Levantine coastal sands and natron, and h…
The origins of Byzantine glass from Maroni Petrera, Cyprus
Nineteen glasses from Maroni Petrera, Cyprus, dating to the sixth–seventh centuries ad, have been analysed by energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis in the scanning electron microscope for major and minor elements. A subset of 15 glasses was also analysed for trace elements, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Two groups are identified. The majority is made of glass produced in the coastal region of Syria–Palestine. The smaller group is…
Retention of Phosphate in Buried Ceramics
Elevated concentrations of P 2 O 5 of 2–12 wt% absolute were observed in the matrices of a small group of ceramics with the electron microprobe. P 2 O 5 , CaO and FeO t are enriched towards the surfaces in some cases and elemental correlations suggest precipitation of a crystalline calcium phosphate with a stoichiometry close to CaO · P 2 O 5 . Scanning electron microscopy with X‐ray mapping showed P 2 O 5 to be dispersed in the ceramic matrix on…
An Examination of the High Gloss Surface Finishes on Greek Attic and Roman Samian Wares
Applications and Potential of Electron Probe Micro‐analysis in Technological and Provenance Investigations of Ancient Ceramics
European cobalt sources identified in the production of Chinese famille rose porcelain
Log‐ratio Compositional Data Analysis in Archaeometry
Compositional data arise commonly in archaeometry, in the study of artefact compositions where the variables measured either sum to 100%, or can be viewed as a subset of such a set of variables. There has been debate in Archaeometry about the appropriate way to analyse such data statistically, which amounts to argument about how the data should be transformed prior to statistical analysis. This paper reviews aspects of the debate and illustrates,…
Geochemistry of Byzantine and Early Islamic glass from Jerash, Jordan
Twenty‐two objects of glass from the Decapolis city of Gerasa, N. Jordan, with characteristic vessel forms ranging from Hellenistic to Early Islamic (2nd century BCE to 8th century CE) were analyzed for major and trace elements, and 16 samples for Sr‐isotopes. The majority were produced in the vicinity of Apollonia on the Palestine coast in the 6th–7th centuries CE, and strong inter‐element correlations for Fe, Ti, Mn, Mg, Nb reflect local variat…
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…
Glass production at an Early Islamic workshop in Tel Aviv
Textural Analysis of Ceramic Thin Sections
‘Textural analysis’ is being increasingly used for the characterisation of pottery fabrics. In this study we have investigated some of the effects on the observed size distribution data of applying a number of different grain selection procedures (principally various point‐counting and ribbon‐counting procedures). The results indicate that significant differences may arise from the application of the various techniques of grain selection and it i…
Regional patterns in medieval European glass composition as a provenancing tool
Technology, production and chronology of red window glass in the medieval period – rediscovery of a lost technology
Modelling Changes in Mollusc Shell Internal Microstructure During Firing
Firing experiments have been carried out on a clay containing naturally occurring fragments of mollusc shell. The transformation and/or decomposition of mineral phases with temperature was monitored by thermal analysis on the starting material and compared with X‐ray diffraction data on the fired specimens. Scanning electron microscopy revealed systematic changes in the internal microstructure of the shell fragments. Micrometer‐sized intra‐ and i…
Egyptian Faience
Exotic glass types and the intensity of recycling in the northwest Quarter of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan)
Major and trace elements are presented for 149 glass fragments ranging in date from the Roman to Early Islamic periods (1st – mid-8th centuries CE), excavated during the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project's fieldwork between 2011 and 2016. The results confirm a clear dominance of Levantine glass types, but also reveal 12 glasses of Egyptian and Mesopotamian compositions recovered from two houses destroyed by the major earthquake which…
Composition of Byzantine glasses from Umm el-Jimal, northeast Jordan
"An indigenous technology? A commentary on Lankton et al. "Early primary glass production in southern Nigeria
A Technological Study of Chinese Porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty
Optical and scanning electron microscopy, electron microprobe analysis and X‐ray diffraction are used to determine the composition and microstructure of the bodies and glazes of Chinese porcelain of the Yuan dynasty from Jingdezhen, as well as samples of porcelain‐stone and glaze‐stone from the same region. The original mineralogical compositions of the porcelain bodies and glazes are estimated. The results indicate that the yingqing porcelain bo…
The introduction of celadon production in North China
Applications and Potential of Electron Probe Micro‐analysis in Technological and Provenance Investigations of Ancient Ceramics
An Examination of the High Gloss Surface Finishes on Greek Attic and Roman Samian Wares
Egyptian Faience
A Technological Study of Chinese Porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty
Optical and scanning electron microscopy, electron microprobe analysis and X‐ray diffraction are used to determine the composition and microstructure of the bodies and glazes of Chinese porcelain of the Yuan dynasty from Jingdezhen, as well as samples of porcelain‐stone and glaze‐stone from the same region. The original mineralogical compositions of the porcelain bodies and glazes are estimated. The results indicate that the yingqing porcelain bo…
Textural Analysis of Ceramic Thin Sections
‘Textural analysis’ is being increasingly used for the characterisation of pottery fabrics. In this study we have investigated some of the effects on the observed size distribution data of applying a number of different grain selection procedures (principally various point‐counting and ribbon‐counting procedures). The results indicate that significant differences may arise from the application of the various techniques of grain selection and it i…
Retention of Phosphate in Buried Ceramics
Elevated concentrations of P 2 O 5 of 2–12 wt% absolute were observed in the matrices of a small group of ceramics with the electron microprobe. P 2 O 5 , CaO and FeO t are enriched towards the surfaces in some cases and elemental correlations suggest precipitation of a crystalline calcium phosphate with a stoichiometry close to CaO · P 2 O 5 . Scanning electron microscopy with X‐ray mapping showed P 2 O 5 to be dispersed in the ceramic matrix on…
The Prunay workshop
A small group of La Tène I/II painted pottery from Champagne has been examined in thin section, with the scanning electron microscope and by X‐ray diffraction in order to determine the production technology. The results have allowed the recognition of a group of vessels so closely related in respect of their typology, fabric, forming and firing technology and decorative techniques that they were probably the products of a single centre ‐ the so‐c…
An Investigation of the Origin of the Colour of the Lycurgus Cup by Analytical Transmission Electron Microscopy
Technical Examination of Neo-Assyrian Glazed Wall Plaques
In association with the investigation of Albenda (preceding paper) fragments from four polychrome glazed terracotta wall plaques (knob plates) were submitted for technical examination. All are believed to date to the ninth century B.C. and represent three sites: Nimrud (WA 131663), Ba'shiqa (Tell Billah) (WAN 2037, N2038) and Arban (WA91689). Technical information on the glazed ceramics of the Neo-Assyrian period is limited. In addition to provid…
Excavation of a Bronze Age Cemetery at Ewanrigg, Maryport, Cumbria
Excavations at Ewanrigg, Maryport, Cumbria (NY035353) took place in 1983 and 1985–87. The site of a Bronze Age cremation cemetery was discovered whilst fieldwalking a crop-mark enclosure site; this site had been trial excavated in 1956 and shown to be a Romano-British settlement. During the excavations 28 burials were discovered, 26 being cremations and two inhumations. Both inhumations, one a Beaker burial and the other a cist burial with a Food…
Archaeological Stone
Significance of Phosphate in Ceramic Bodies
Lead Glazes in Antiquity—methods of Production and Reasons for Use
Transparent high lead and tin‐opacified lead‐alkali glazes have been extensively used throughout Europe and the Near East from their first appearance in the Roman era and the tenth‐ to eleventh‐century Islamic world, respectively, up until the present day. Using, to a large extent, information which is widely scattered through a diverse range of literature, the methods employed in the production of these two glaze types are first outlined and the…
Composition and Origin of Early Mediaeval Opaque Red Enamel from Britain and Ireland
A Quasi Non‐destructive Microsampling Technique for the Analysis of Intact Glass Objects By Sem/edxa
A novel sampling technique for the analysis of glass is described, which involves the removal of minute particles from an object with a diamond‐coated file, followed by energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis in the scanning electron microscope (SEM/EDXA). The particles are fixed to adhesive carbon discs and carbon coated without grinding or polishing. Mean compositions are determined for 10 arbitrarily selected particles above a minimum grain size of 1…
The relationship between enamelling on ceramics and on glass in the Islamic world
In a recent paper, Mason et al. (2001) demonstrated that enamels on mina’i ware, a Persian ceramic of the 12th century, were applied using a special firing of short duration. A similar principle was exploited to enamel glass, beginning in Syria in about the same period. This gives new credence to the long‐standing idea that the origin of enamelling on glass resulted in part from an interaction between glass workers and potters
The origins of Byzantine glass from Maroni Petrera, Cyprus
Nineteen glasses from Maroni Petrera, Cyprus, dating to the sixth–seventh centuries ad, have been analysed by energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis in the scanning electron microscope for major and minor elements. A subset of 15 glasses was also analysed for trace elements, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Two groups are identified. The majority is made of glass produced in the coastal region of Syria–Palestine. The smaller group is…
Strontium Isotopes in the Investigation of Early Glass Production
87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios have been determined for glasses from four production sites, dated to between the sixth and the 11th centuries, in the Eastern Mediterranean region. On the basis of elemental analyses, the glasses at each location are believed to have been melted from different raw materials. Two glass groups, from Bet Eli‘ezer and Bet She‘an, in Israel, are believed to have been based upon mixtures of Levantine coastal sands and natron, and h…
Natron as a flux in the early vitreous materials industry
The Technology of ‘Glazed’ Reserved Slip Ware—a Fine Ceramic of the Harappan Period
‘Glazed’ Reserved Slip Ware (RSW) is a high‐quality glossy bichrome pottery of the Indus Valley civilization, and dates to the mature Harappan period ( c. 2600–1900 bc ). Scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis indicates that the surface coat on RSW is composed of a pale grey vitrified clay slip, which overlies a black slip with significantly higher iron oxide. Hence the term ‘sintered’ Reserved Slip Ware is to be prefe…
Glass production in Late Antiquity and the Early Islamic period
First millennium ad glass production was divided between a relatively small number of workshops that made raw glass and a large number of secondary workshops that fabricated vessels. Glass compositions reflect the primary glassmaking source. For most of the period, Egyptian mineral soda was fused with lime-bearing siliceous sand to produce soda-lime-silica glass. The location of the Belus glassmaking sand, which is known from the classical litera…
Crowning glory
"An indigenous technology? A commentary on Lankton et al. "Early primary glass production in southern Nigeria
Log‐ratio Compositional Data Analysis in Archaeometry
Compositional data arise commonly in archaeometry, in the study of artefact compositions where the variables measured either sum to 100%, or can be viewed as a subset of such a set of variables. There has been debate in Archaeometry about the appropriate way to analyse such data statistically, which amounts to argument about how the data should be transformed prior to statistical analysis. This paper reviews aspects of the debate and illustrates,…
The Provenance and Technology of Near Eastern Glass
The ability to make rapid measurements on small samples using laser fluorination enhances the potential of oxygen isotopes in the investigation of early inorganic materials and technologies. δ 18 O and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values are presented for glass from two primary production sites, four secondary production sites and a consumer site in the Near East, dating from Late Antiquity to the medieval period. δ 18 O is in general slightly less effective tha…
Archaeology (50 obras) · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis (49 obras) · Geology (35 obras) · Materials Science (33 obras) · History (32 obras) · Metallurgy (30 obras) · Building materials and conservation (29 obras) · Geography (27 obras) · Mineralogy (26 obras) · Archaeological Research and Protection (22 obras)