Curt W. Beck

A funerary feast fit for King Midas

A royal banquet has been reconstructed from residues in pots found inside the tomb.

Science in Archaeology: A Review

Author(s): Patrick E. McGovern, Thomas L. Sever, J. Wilson Myers, Eleanor Emlen Myers, Bruce Bevan, Naomi F. Miller, S. Bottema, Hitomi Hongo, Richard H. Meadow, Peter Ian Kuniholm, S. G. E. Bowman, M. N. Leese, R. E. M. Hedges, Frederick R. Matson, Ian C. Freestone, Sarah J. Vaughan, Julian Henderson, Pamela B. Vandiver, Charles S. Tumosa, Curt W. Beck, Patricia Smith, A. M. Child, A. M. Pollard, Ingolf Thuesen, Catherine Sease Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 99, No. 1 (Jan., 1995), pp. 79-142 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/506880 Accessed: 16/07/2009 14:57

The chemical identification of baltic amber at the Celtic oppidum Staré Hradisko in Moravia

Abstract The Celtic oppidum Stare Hradisko north of Brno in Moravia, CSSR, has long been noted for its wealth of archaeological amber artifacts. Since there are several substantial deposits of fossil resins in the immediate vicinity of the site, it has been an open question whether the settlement was a centre of exploitation and exportation of these local raw materials, or whether it was an entrepot of Baltic amber on its way to southern and southeastern Europe. Because of extensive weathering, many of the amber finds at Stare Hradisko cannot be identified by infra-red spectroscopy. A new analytical method, which determines the amount of succinic acid by means of gas chromatography, has been developed to show that the amber of Stare Hradisko is, in fact, of the Baltic variety called succinite.

Aus der Bernstein-Forschung

Palaeobotanists have confirmed the assignment of the amber trees to the genus Pinus, but chemical and spectroscopic evidence indicates that these extinct trees differed from recent pines in their metabolism. Infrared spectroscopy can now identify Baltic amber imports among the archaeological amber artifacts of southern Europe. IR, NMR and mass spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, thin-layer chromatography, neutron activation analysis and fission-track dating all promise further advances towards determining the botanical and geographic origin of amber and related fossil resins.

Trouble in the Hedgerows

Abstract Along with all interdisciplinary enterprises, archaeological science has more serious problems with maintaining professional standards and ethics than do established fields of scholarship. There are no simple solutions, but neither is it justifiable to accept such lapses as inevitable. All members of the profession must share the responsibility of exposing shoddy work and curbing abuses.

A large find of supposed amber from the Baltic Sea

Abstract A large mass of resin recovered from the Baltic Sea in 1988 has been thought to be Baltic amber (succinite) or its variety gedanite. The physical properties (melting point, solubility), spectral characteristics (infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance) and most conclusively a component analysis by gas chromatography — mass spectrometry show that the find is not a fossil resin but a modern, manufactured rosin or colophony.