Although the development of lead crystal was a major step in the history of glass in the late 17th century, the presence of lead in vitreous matrices (glass and glazes) is much older, dating back to the second millennium BCE. Lead in Glassy Materials in Cultural Heritage traces the history of these skills and also looks at the most recent developments in materials science concerning the role played by lead in the properties of glass, including coloring. It develops an understanding of weathering processes and notions of the durability of leaded glass. It also examines public health issues and current recommended standards for the use of lead in industrial glass. This multidisciplinary book is intended for a wide audience: art and technical historians, museum curators, restorers, materials specialists, manufacturers and engineers.

Chemical Analysis provides non invasive and micro-analytical techniques for the investigation of cultural heritage materials. The tools and techniques, discussed by experts in the field, are of universal, sensitive and multi-component nature.

This volume comprises papers presented at the EurASEAA14 conference in 2012, updated for publication. It focuses on topics under the broad themes of archaeology and heritage, material culture, environmental archaeology, osteoarchaeology, historic and prehistoric archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and long-distance contact, trade and exchange.

Scientific techniques developed in materials science offer invaluable information to archaeology, art history, and conservation. A rapidly growing number of innovative methods, as well as many established techniques, are constantly being improved and optimised for the analysis of cultural heritage materials. The result is that on the one hand more complex problems and questions can be confronted, but on the other hand the required level of technical competence is widening the existing cultural gap between scientists and end users, such as archaeologists, museum curators, art historians, and many managers of cultural heritage who have a purely humanistic background. The book is intended as an entry-level introduction to the methods and rationales of scientific investigation of cultural heritage materials, with emphasis placed on the analytical strategies, modes of operation, and resulting information rather than on technicalities. The extensive and updated reference list should be a useful starting point for further reading. Students and researchers from the humanities approaching scientific investigations should find it useful, as well as scientists applying familiar techniques and methods to unfamiliar problems related to cultural heritage.

The series Topics in Current Chemistry Collections presents critical reviews from the journal Topics in Current Chemistry organized in topical volumes. The scope of coverage is all areas of chemical science including the interfaces with related disciplines such as biology, medicine and materials science. The goal of each thematic volume is to give the non-specialist reader, whether in academia or industry, a comprehensive insight into an area where new research is emerging which is of interest to a larger scientific audience.Each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years are presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. The coverage is not intended to be an exhaustive summary of the field or include large quantities of data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the methodological thinking that will allow the non-specialist reader to understand the information presented. Contributions also offer an outlook on potential future developments in the field.

This book addresses the application of Raman spectroscopic techniques to a range of diverse problems which arise in the study, conservation and restoration of artefacts and sites closely related to our cultural heritage as well as in authentication. These themes are naturally wider than what at first might be considered as artworks and archaeological artefacts and the topics include pigments, paintings, ceramics, glass, sculpture and patination / corrosion, textiles, industrial archaeology, the degradation and preservation of biomaterials, mummies and human skeletal remains. An interesting feature is the inclusion of modern case studies which describe specific problems and approaches to the Raman spectral analysis of items important to our cultural heritage. The text is prefaced with an introduction to the important parameters used in nondestructive Raman measurements and also highlights some future applications based upon novel miniaturised instrumentation for in-field studies and potential screening work which will identify specimens which would repay further studies in the laboratory. An attempt is made to give a snapshot of the state-of-the-art evolution since the beginning of the technique (1970s) and to point out potential further development. The book is co-edited by three international experts with many years' experience in the application of Raman spectroscopy to artworks, archaeological artefacts and in the investigation of materials and sites for cultural heritage preservation and each editor has undertaken to write individual chapters and different topics personally. The adopted approach is designed to convey the sort of information which has become available from the adoption of analytical Raman spectroscopy to different problems in the field of cultural heritage preservation through the spectral interrogation of artefacts and how the interpretation of the spectral data can assist museum curators, archaeologists and cultural heritage historians in the preservation and conservation of ancient materials and sites : a particular advantage in this respect is the ability of Raman spectroscopy to determine –generally in a strictly noninvasive procedure - at the laboratory or on-site with mobile instruments, the presence of both organic and inorganic components in a particular specimen together nondestructively without any chemical and mechanical pretreatment being undertaken, which is an essential requirement for rare and valuable samples . An important aside from this work is the means of spectral identification of ongoing biodeterioration and biological colonisation in specimens in storage and the effects of environmental deterioration such as humidity and temperature upon their integrity.

The first scientific volume to compile the modern analytical techniques for glass analysis, Modern Methods for Analysing Archaeological and Historical Glass presents an up-to-date description of the physico-chemical methods suitable for determining the composition of glass and for speciation of specific components. This unique resource presents members of Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre, as well as university scholars, with a number of case studies where the effective use of one or more of these methods for elucidating a particular culturo-historical or historo-technical aspect of glass manufacturing technology is documented.