- Chance to see the Crosby Garrett Helmet - The Roman period Crosby Garrett helmet, which I was lucky enough to do some superficial analysis on in 2010, will be part of the Royal Academy’s Bronze exhibition which runs until the 9th of December 2012. The RA have used the title of the exhibition – Bronze – to refer to any object made of… Continue reading Chance to see the Crosby Garrett Helmet
- Analysis work at the Earth Sciences Department, Fribourg, Switzerland - I’ve been extremely lucky to have the opportunity to use the Phillips 2400 wavelength dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectrometer (WD-XRF) at the Earth Sciences Department in Fribourg, Switzerland. Consequently I’ve been extremely quiet here, as I’ve been in the labs non-stop for the last few months preparing my samples. Here at the Institute we prepare our… Continue reading Analysis work at the Earth Sciences Department, Fribourg, Switzerland
- Introduction to slag analysis: How iron is made in a bloomery furnace - Previous post: Introduction to Slag Analysis: What is it and why bother? Whilst writing this series I realised that without understanding how iron is made in a furnace, all this talk about slag is a bit confusing. The following is an attempt to state the process clearly and concisely. As with many aspects of the… Continue reading Introduction to slag analysis: How iron is made in a bloomery furnace
- Introduction to slag analysis: What is it and why bother? - Following on from my introduction yesterday, I’m continuing my introduction to slag analysis with a quick and easy discussion of why we do it and what we hope to achieve. What is slag? Slag is what we call some of the remains generated by high temperature metallurgical activity. When people smelt ore into metal or… Continue reading Introduction to slag analysis: What is it and why bother?
- Archaeological slags, an introductory blog series - I’ve been thinking about doing some writing about slag analysis for a while, and as I’m currently in the lab working on samples this seemed like the best time. As I have discovered, the subject of slag analysis is like an iceberg – it seems insignificant on the surface, but once you get below the… Continue reading Archaeological slags, an introductory blog series
- pXRF of the Crosby Garrett Roman parade helmet - I posted previously that I would update after I had seen what is now being called the Crosby Garrett helmet. In the end, I was asked not to by the Portable Antiquities Scheme with whom I was working, because of all of the uproar surrounding the helmet. On the day I travelled to see the… Continue reading pXRF of the Crosby Garrett Roman parade helmet
- David A. Scott’s Metallography and Microstructure of Ancient Metals - I can’t remember if I’ve posted about this before or not, however in case I haven’t I wanted to mention it here. David A. Scott, who is chairing one of the sessions at the HMS Research in Progress meeting I am helping to organise, has made his seminal book Metallography and Microstructure of Ancient and… Continue reading David A. Scott’s Metallography and Microstructure of Ancient Metals
- pXRF standards analysis - Just wanted to share this image, as I am feeling quite so pleased with it: It illustrates the results from some certified standard materials I analysed on the portable XRF machine yesterday afternoon. Certified standards are materials whose exact composition has been tested and agreed on by multiple laboratories, often the best international ones. We… Continue reading pXRF standards analysis
- How to produce an academic poster: someone elses’s good opinions! - A few months back I produced a couple of posters for an international conference, and you lot were kind enough to offer lots of suggestions etc., which was really helpful. I did a lot of research on the internet – they don’t do classes in that kind of stuff at university, that would be too… Continue reading How to produce an academic poster: someone elses’s good opinions!
- Crosby Garrett helmet goes for £2,000,000 - I just watched the Christie’s auction online. I thought things were going well when lots of the items failed to sell, or went for the lowest estimate. Unfortunately that didn’t happen to the Crosby Garrett Roman cavalry helmet that I analysed a couple of weeks ago. In the end it went for a round £2,000,000.… Continue reading Crosby Garrett helmet goes for £2,000,000
Ruth Fillery-Travis 