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ANALYZABLE MAIN MATERIALS

• Bones and teeth
• Wood
• Stone
• Pottery
• Metals
• Glass
• Resins and related vegetables extracts
• Pigments
• Textils and derivatives
• Soils and living floors
• Building materials

Bones and teeth

The bones and teeth remains operate like receptacles that reflex his development history. So, the type of diet ingest by an organism along his live will be register inside the bones and teeth. This record can decode and quantify through the analyses of molecular elements:

• Studies of composition of bones ensembles for infer the types of alimentation of the past human communities
• Isotopic analyses of dentins for knowing persons alimentation of the analyzed samples

Wood

The ancient organic remains only conserve in specific conditions, so that when appears in the archaeological record we will have to be well attentive for recuperated in the adequate form:

• Chemical process analyses of the deteriorate wood
• Agents that actuate upon the degradation wood
• Intervention plan for musealization of the piece

Stone

The stone is one of the majorities’ supports of the conserved archaeological remains. The study of the own stone and the instrumental analysis of the concretions, residues and patinas of some archaeological objects allow knowing for which activities were used:

• The study of the lithic tools handles allow reconstructs the objects
• Analyses of lithic elements like marble
• Characterization and study of raw materials
• The study of the concretions and residues of mortars and hand mills allow characterizing his specific uses

Pottery

The potteries are receptacles of cook clay of vary dimensions and forms. The preindustrial potteries are not completely watertight and present a certain grade of porosity.

The porosity nature of the pottery it is caused by his fabrication process that is cooked a low temperature. The porosity grade of the receptacles put up the necessity of cover the inside of some potteries with some sealing material for protect it form filtrations.

During the Roman Empire, for example, the amphora where basically used by storage and liquid transports or conserved solid in liquid transports. Generally could contain farming products or transformed substances like olive oil or salty fish conserved in gross salt.

The traditional conception upholds that only the wine amphora carry on sealing, but the new studies demonstrate that not only the wine amphora carry on sealing.

So, the chemical characterization of the archaeological potteries and the molecular residues absorbed by potteries represent his remanent contains. This allows know his function and assign it to specific uses:

• The chemical analysis of the remanent sealings in the potteries paste allow infers the receptacles contents
• The study of the sediment inside the pottery approaches us to the characterization of his contents
• The potteries furnace allows know the production process of the receptacles and his fabrication pastes
• Characterization and study of the potteries raw materials

Metals

The metal archaeological objects (coins, tools, weapons, votive elements, etc.) normally are found with an important corrosion and degradation condition.

The instrumental techniques allow identifying his corrosion condition and characterization. This precise diagnostic allow decides the adequate restoration actuations for the piece condition:

• Diagnosis of the corrosion condition with the identification of the corrosion products
• Identification of the concretion elements and the patina surfaces
• Agents that actuate upon the corrosio
• Intervention plan upon the piece

Glass

The glass objects founded in the archaeological excavations mostly reduce to fragmented remains. The principal reasons are his fabrication and limited diffusion and his fragile nature that put up a difficult conservation, already during his burial, like after his found.

In this sense, the glass discoveries are often little fragments that the archaeologist did not have time and mediums to study it, even though are materials that worked by specialists can give great results, already for restoration the piece like for know his uses:

• Presence organic materials determination that allow a functional characterization
• Chemical analysis (melting and frosted material, colourings,…)
• Characterization of the crystalline phases in the glassy mass
• Determination of the techniques fabrication

Resins and related vegetables extracts

The natural resins and the vegetables extracts are historically used like adhesive, medicinal ointment, flavouring substances, ships waterproofing and buildings, the same as potteries receptacles sealing.

The archaeological materials analyses through spectroscopic techniques allow detecting the use of these products in the conserve archaeological record:

• The characterization of organic residues like resins, sealing or sealants in the archaeological material allow infer his function
• The evaluation of the burial mediums effects in the organic material preservation and the techniques for his recuperation allows optimizes his conservation and establish proposes for his musealization

Pigments

The paint pigments, used in open air, in dry, in mural painting or rock art representation suffers, with past of time, certain alteration process and degradation that condition his conservation.

So, the study of the paint factors that had operated upon certain paint allows planning the most adequate intervention method for stopping the degradation process and guarantees his conservation.

The chemical analyses upon painting microsamples supply precise data upon the substance –qualitative analysis- and percentage values of distribution of a certain substance upon a surface –quantitative analysis-. So we can verify the absorption capacity of the mortars, the presence or absence of certain mineral substances that guarantee the pigments catch and his solubility grade:

• The study of the pictorial supports allows knowing the fixing condition of the pigments
• Identification of agglutinates
• Pigments analyses and his condition conservation

Textils and derivatives

The ancient textiles remains only conserve in extremely humid or extremely arid conditions. Both conditions keep constants that prevent the deterioration of this type of remains:

• Identification of fibre and type of texture
• Dyeing and agglutinants analyses through the trace elements of the texture

Soils and living floors

The soils of archaeological sites, the archaeological living floors and his associate sediments contain derivate elements from the archaeological materials degradation that can be detected at molecular range.

Until few time the instrumental applications had been limited in the archaeological sites to phosphates analyses for the human activity detection and the determination of big archaeological surfaces.

At present the archaeometry techniques allow identify, distinguish and interpret the different activity areas of the archaeological living floors and determinate the molecular indicators that help to know the activities realize in soils, as much as modern ethnographic contexts like archaeological sites or monumental buildings:

• Study of the historical uses of the soil (cattle raising, human habitat, agriculture…)
• Elemental composition of constructive materials of historical buildings
• Study of the activities developed in the anciens historical buildings
• Detection of origin organic materials like wood, textiles and plants
• Elemental characterization of mosaics
• Firesides study, potteries furnace and metal fuse

Building materials

The ancient constructive structures restitution requires the analytic knowlegment of his constituents materials. The classic crystallographic techniques like X-ray diffraction allow knowing the purity grade and the mineralogical phase of agglutinants materials of mortars and cementations.

The mortars and covers are particular construction materials because are the result of a preparation treatment that transforms a natural substance in a construction material.

In this way the construction materials can be considered like artificial products elaborates through bases natural substances. The final product is composed of inorganic products (lime, gypsum, sand, gravel…) and vegetables (wood, straw…) in different proportions.

His chemical analyses allow, then, quantify the presents elements, like calcium, magnesium, silica, aluminium, sulfur, potassium and sodium, that are historically the elements most abundant in the agglutinants of preindustrialize mortars.

This allows also quantify other trace elements like strontium and barium, for obtain the correct proportions of his components. In this way we can compare the agglutinants with the natural materials used for his fabrication and we can reproduce in the restoration monuments projects with the maximum fidelity.

Like we had said the study of his characterization and elemental composition results fundamental before the procedure of a building or monument restoration:

• Study of constructive covers
• Mortars and constituents agglutinants analyses
• Wall and contains studies in others habitat structures