Thin-Section Petrography of Stone and Ceramic Cultural Materials

摘要

This book is a much awaited and welcome manual and standard reference for all those archaeometrists working in the laboratory on thin sections of stone and ceramics used or produced in antiquity and interested in their characterization, provenance and technological study. In spite of the availability of ever more sophisticated instruments for chemical and mineralogical analysis of inorganic materials, these studies are still of fundamental importance for archaeological and historical science, providing direct observation of components and the various textures and stratigraphy of artefacts made of stone or clay materials. They are also cheap, requiring only a polarizing microscope, an instrument normally present in all scientific laboratories, and simple cutting and polishing machines.