Julian Henderson

Corona Remotely-Sensed Imagery in Dryland Archaeology: The Islamic City of al-Raqqa, Syria

Abstract Satellite remote sensing has seen some use in archaeological research, although its effectiveness has been restricted by the low spatial resolution and the high cost of available imagery. In 1995 the United States declassified 860,000 high-resolution Corona satellite photographs, acquired for intelligence purposes between 1960 and 1972. Corona offers global coverage with an emphasis on areas of strategic significance to the United States. The imagery has been released into the public domain at low cost of acquisition. In this paper we explore the potential of Corona imagery in archaeological investigations using as an example the topography and cultural landscape of the early Islamic city of al-Raqqa in northern Syria.

Glass production and Bronze Age Europe

A knowledge of pyrotechnology - the skills of creating and working with high temperatures - attested for later prehistoric Europe first by refined ceramics in the Neolithic, then by copper and bronze metallurgy. But what about the third aspect of pyrotechnology – faience, glass and other vitreous materials? New work reported in this survey shows a place for glass in the European Bronze Age.

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 roots of provenance: glass, plants and isotopes in the Islamic Middle East

Abstract Glass – one of the most prestigious materials of the early Islamic empire – was traded not only as vessels and bangles but as raw glass blocks. One of its raw materials, plant-ash, was also traded. This means that tracking the production of this precious commodity is especially challenging. The authors show that while chemical composition can relate to vessel type, it is a combination of chemical compositions with strontium and neodymium isotope ratios that is most likely to lead to (a geological) provenance for its manufacture. The materials used by the glassmakers were local sand and plant ashes. Reported here is the first application of the method to the glass made at the primary glass making centre of al-Raqqa, Syria in an environmental context.

The Iron Age Enclosures and Prehistoric Landscape of Sutton Common, South Yorkshire

The Early Iron Age enclosures and associated sites on Sutton Common on the western edge of the Humberhead Levels contain an exceptional variety of archaeological data of importance not only to the region but for the study of later prehistory in the British Isles. Few other later prehistoric British sites outside the East Anglian fens and the Somerset Levels have thus far produced the quantity and quality of organically preserved archaeological materials that have been found, despite the small scale of the investigations to date. The excavations have provided an opportunity to integrate a variety of environmental analyses, of wood, pollen, beetles, waterlogged and carbonised plant remains, and of soil micromorphology, to address archaeological questions about the character, use, and environment of this Early Iron Age marsh fort. The site is comprised of a timber palisaded enclosure and a succeeding multivallate enclosure linked to a smaller enclosure by a timber alignment across a palaeochannel, with associated finds ranging in date from the Middle Bronze Age to the Roman and medieval periods. Among the four adjacent archaeological sites is an Early Mesolithic occupation site, also with organic preservation, and there is a Late Neolithic site beneath the large enclosure. Desiccation throughout the common is leading to the damage and loss of wooden and organic remains. It is hoped that the publication of these results, of investigations between 1987 and 1993, will lead to a fuller investigation taking place.

The Glass from Borg, an Early Medieval Chieftain's Farm in Northern Norway

EXCAVATIONS at the farm of Borg on Vestvagoy Island, N. Norway, yielded an imported assemblage of glass. A programme of chemical analyses has augmented typological study, and led to new insights into the manufacture and exchange of glass in early medieval N. W. Europe.

Chemical Characterization of Roman Glass Vessels, Enamels and Tesserae

Chemical characterization of Roman glass vessels, enamels and tesserae has revealed compositional relationships between enamels and tesserae including the use of high magnesia red and orange glass, normally considered to have gone out of use hundreds of years earlier. The conservative use of glass recipes over a 300 year period is reflected in the compositions; the results of mass-production versus more restricted production are discussed.

Isotope analysis of English forest glass from the Weald and Staffordshire

Glass is one of several early modern industries where the development from small-scale workshop to large-scale industry offers a valuable insight into wider socio-economic trends. Previously, medieval and early modern forest (wood ash) glass has been studied using a range of analytical techniques. However, characterisations of production centres and exchange systems for forest glasses are difficult to verify, in part because very few examples of raw glass from furnace sites have been investigated. Compositional analysis can provide evidence for the raw materials used and can sometimes provide compositional groupings specific to sites. However, strontium and neodymium isotope determinations can actually provenance the glass by linking the geological ages, or sources, of raw materials to production sites. Using EPMA fifty-six raw glass samples from four sites in two English production areas in operation during the 14th and 16th centuries have been analysed. These analyses have shown that the main products of these sites were potash-rich, wood or bracken ash glasses. However, the chemical composition does not provide sufficient resolution to identify differences between the two English regions or the sites within these regions. A subset of five raw glass samples from each of these sites have also been analysed using TIMS to determine strontium and neodymium concentration and isotope ratios. The results allow glasses produced in each region to be differentiated, and can even be used to divide glass production sites within the regions.

Industrial specialization in late Iron Age Britain and Europe

A discussion of specialized industries in later prehistoric Britain is presented, with some reference to regional examples from Europe. The subject is tackled by discussing what we mean by industrial specialization with general examples taken from pottery studies and an exotic material, glass. The location of specialized industries, particularly in Britain, is discussed focusing specifically on iron, copper-alloy and the glass industries, their scale, how the industries are sometimes associated with each other and the extent to which they occur in the various forms of oppida, hillforts and smaller scale settlements. The evidence suggests that during the late Iron Age in Britain the larger scale (sometimes more prestigious) industries are located in small settlements. The role of artisans is considered and whether they were peripatetic, or tied to a settlement, depending on the nature of their skills. Using scientific analysis a model for the iron age glass industry is given. All of this is discussed in th...

An archaeometric study of Hellenistic glass vessels: evidence for multiple sources

In the present study, 53 glass fragments from core-formed vessels and 3 glass beads are investigated using SEM/EDX, EPMA and LA-ICP-MS. All samples were excavated in the Latin settlement of Satricum in central west Italy and apart from two, were found in the so-called fourth–third c. BC Hellenistic Votive deposit, also known as Votive Deposit III, discovered in front of the sanctuary of Mater Matuta on top of the acropolis. The analytical results indicate that the glass from Satricum is a typical soda-lime-silica type with natron used as a flux. Its chemical compositions display a relatively low compositional variation. Small differences in the concentrations of major and minor oxides (SiO2, Al2O3, CaO and Fe2O3) and in trace elements (Sr, Zr and Nd) between individual samples suggest the use of different types of raw materials, especially sand. In turn, this suggests that the glass derived from more than one glass making centre. The combined investigation of colourants (Co, Cu and Mn) reinforces and confirms the idea that glass from Satricum was made using different manufacturing traditions during the Hellenistic period.