1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455956603321

Autore

Bowman Sheridan

Titolo

Science and the past / / edited by Sheridan Bowman

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 1991

©1991

ISBN

1-282-03995-4

9786612039959

1-4426-7963-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (201 p.)

Disciplina

930.1/028

Soggetti

Physical sciences - Historiography

Computer science - Historiography

Archaeology

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- List of Colour Plates -- 1. The Emergence of Scientific Inquiry into the Past -- 2. Ceramics: Materials for all reasons -- 3. Looking into Glass -- 4. Mining and Smelting in Antiquity -- 5. Metalwork: Artifice and artistry -- 6. Tracing to Source -- 7. Questions of Chronology -- 8. Spotting the Fakes -- 9. Computing and Mathematics: Putting two and two together -- 10. Computerising the Collections: The art of successful flea handling -- Glossary -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The ancient artifacts so carefully restored and exhibited in museums open vast windows to our understanding of humanity's past. But for every question an artefact can answer about an earlier civilization, a dozen more are raised. How long ago was this made, with what techniques, and of what materials? What was it used for? How do we know it's authentic? Modern science is able to provide more and more answers to a wide variety of such fundamental questions. In this volume staff members of the British Museum's Department of Scientific Research explain how the physical and computer sciences are used to



study and preserve the record of the past.The British Museum Research Laboratory is the oldest in the world attached to a museum; its staff writes with authority on the benefits (and pitfalls) of using modern scientific analysis to illuminate the technologies and achievements of the past.