9863
Accession Number
2050
Editor
Beck, Curt W.
Title Of Article Chaper
Comparative analysis of archaeological bronzes
Title Of Journal Book
Archaeological chemistry - a symposium sponsored by the division of the history of chemistry at the 165th meeting of the american chemical society, dallas, tex., april 9 - 10, 1973
Pages
148-185
Publisher
American chemical society
Publisher City
Washington, dc
Language Of Text
English
Literature Type
Monograph
Literature Level
Analytic
Meeting
Archaeological chemistry
Meeting City
Dallas, tex.
Abstract
While thousands of analyses of archaeological bronzes have been reported in the literature, the basis for comparing them, especially those from different laboratories, is shaky. A round-robin project of chemical analyses was attempted to improve the situation. Two ancient bronze objects were milled to a fine powder, sieved, and mixed to a homogeneous mass. Samples of 500 mg each drawn randomly from this mass were circulated, and results were returned from 21 laboratories. Forty-eight elements were analyzed; some laboratories did only one element, some did as many as 42. The coefficient of variance (or relative standard deviation) ranges from 4% for Cu up to over 200% for some trace elements. The results are tabulated, and methods are suggested to narrow the spread of results in the next run of this program.
Keywords
Bronze, analysis; Chemistry, archaeology; Bronze, sampling; Statistics, analysis; Trace, analysis; Chemistry, science; Metal, science ICCROM
pub_id
9863
Meeting Date
19730409-19730410