Course on ancient and historic metals

Summer School Intensive in Ancient and Historic Metals: 2006.
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
July 9-16, 2006

Course Aims: This eight-day course will act both as an introduction
and a focus of more intensive study dealing with the examination,
analysis, metallographic examination and deterioration of ancient
and historic metals.  The course is designed to benefit
conservators, scientists  and archaeologists  who wish to learn how
to prepare metallic samples for metallographic study, learn
something of the technological  aspects of the working and structure
of metals, and how corrosion and patination can be discussed and
examined.

Artefacts for examination: Over the past 25 years an unrivalled
collection of mounted metallographic samples  has been assembled,
which are studied as part of the course practical work, involving
both polarized light microscopy and metallographic microscopy of
both freshly polished and etched samples. These samples range from
cast iron from China to wootz steel from India, bronze coinage
alloys from the Roman Empire to high-tin bronze from ancient
Thailand, silver alloys from the Parthian period to ancient Ecuador,
gilded copper and tumbaga from Peru and Colombia, to mention only a
few of the geographical areas covered by available samples. Course
participants will be instructed in the use of polishing and etching
in the examination of samples and are encouraged to keep digital
images of the samples they have prepared during the week.  Students
may also bring their own samples  for examination if mounted and
ground, or if not mounted, then one or two samples may be brought
which can be mounted and prepared during the course.

Course Instructor:

    Professor David A. Scott, Director of the MA program in
    Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation.  His book, Copper
    and Bronze in Art: Corrosion, Colorants, Conservation won the
    prize from the Association of American Publishers  as the best
    Scholarly/Art book published in the USA in 2002.  Professor
    Scott has published  over 70 papers in the peer-reviewed
    literature and is an Editor for the journal Studies in
    Conservation.

Course Schedule: The course will be held over the eight days from
July 9-16, 2006.  The course will be held at the Cotsen Institute of
Archaeology, located in the basement of the Fowler Museum Building
at the UCLA campus in Los Angeles from 9:15am-5pm each day. The
course is open to a maximum of 10 participants only.

Course Costs:  The cost of the instruction for the eight days will
be $800.00. For details of payment and to register for this course,
as well as to receive leaflets on local housing and hotels, please
contact the course organizer and director:

    Professor David A. Scott
    Room A410
    The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA
    405 Hilgard Avenue
    Los Angeles CA 90095-1510, USA
    dascott<-a t->ucla< . >edu.

Course Details:

Saturday:

    Introduction, use of the metallurgical microscope, the mounting
    and polishing  of samples, their preparation, use of resins,
    grinding and polishing.  Introduction to phase diagrams and
    their application to ancient bronzes and copper alloys.
    Copper-arsenical, copper-nickel, and copper-tin alloys. Casting
    and working of metals and aspects of bronze casting in the
    ancient world.  Etching of some copper alloys.

Sunday:

    Continuation of the examination of copper-tin and
    copper-tin-lead alloys. Ancient coinage alloys of the Roman
    period, examination of copper-arsenic bronzes, aspects of the
    corrosion of bronze and copper alloys. The Pourbaix diagram and
    some of its applications.  The extraction of metals from their
    ores and some principles of the Ellingham diagram.

Monday:

    The phase diagram for copper-silver and lead-tin alloys.
    Examination of silver and debased silver alloys.  Surface
    enrichment and corrosion. Problems in the authentication of
    ancient silver and bronze alloys. Metallographic  examination of
    ancient silver alloys and techniques of etching silver.
    Discontinuous precipitation phenomena and the age of silver
    alloys. Colour etching of both copper alloys  and silver alloys.
    The Philosopher plate and the Strozzi silver basin: case studies
    from the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Tuesday:

    Mounting of samples brought by students. Examination of some
    ternary phase issues in relation to gold-silver-copper alloys.
    The corrosion of tumbaga alloys and aspects of the Pourbaix
    diagram. Video concerning the extraction of iron and steel.
    Introduction to iron and steel.  The principles of corrosion and
    the eight types of corrosion of metals. The examination of iron
    from meteorites. The technology of ancient iron and steel in the
    West, in India and in China will be contrasted and samples
    illustrating these different technologies examined.  The
    metallography of ancient iron alloys.

Wednesday:

    Corrosion issues of iron and steel.  Weathering steel and
    patinas, the nature of iron corrosion products and their
    implications for the stabilization of iron artefacts during
    conservation treatments. Problems with the examination of lead,
    lead-tin, zinc, and aluminium alloys.  The reasons why brass was
    made by cementation, the extraction of metallic zinc and
    examination of samples of brass alloys.  The use of solders and
    aspects of tinning of ancient bronzes.  Examination of mounted
    specimens prepared on the Tuesday, and continuation of practical
    metallography.

Thursday:

    Examination of patinas and corrosion.  The problems associated
    with corrosion and sampling for polarized light examination.
    Continuation of practical metallographic examination and colour
    etching  of a variety of samples.  Recording of samples with
    digital camera and case studies in the examination of a group of
    copper alloy plaques and a bronze figurine of the God Osiris
    will be discussed.

Friday:

    Gold and gold alloys: gilding:  examination of gold alloys.
    Lecture on the technology of ancient gold alloys in South
    America. Continuation of metallographic practical examination.

Saturday:

    Examination of further metallographic samples.  Additional case
    studies dealing with metals technology and corrosion.  End of
    the course.

For those who need to leave early, the principal part of the
teaching will finish by 3pm. For those wishing to continue, we will
work until 4:15pm and pack away samples and equipment to finish at
5pm.


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:25
                Distributed: Thursday, November 10, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-19-25-013
                                  ***