Surface art: 2000BC to AD2000-an ongoing perspective

摘要

Some 4000 years ago and perhaps a bit earlier, somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean there were a few skilled artisans, who worked with metals, ceramics, and glass. These artisans were able to perform 'transformations' on their materials. Their names are lost forever. All we know, from fragments of circumstantial evidence, is that after major disturbances in the 20th century BC, there were great improvements in technology and traces of 'Levantine' workmanship throughout the area and particularly in Egypt have been found. Apparently, some of the specialists were brought to Egypt and continued their work and experiments in the workshops attached to the temple of the god Ptah. In these secluded laboratories, directly controlled by the pharaoh and the high priests, nobody was allowed to rite down the recipes or to discuss them with anybody. Transgressors were punished with death. This handful of specialised artisans was the first nucleus of the later alchemistic school of Alexandria in Egypt. Without them no modern chemistry would exist.Surface treatments of silver and copper based alloys were an integral part of their transformation experiments. The imitation of precious stones, for example by treating rock crystal with copper salts to 'make' emeralds, and the sophistication of purple, the precious dye from the murex shell, were also the subject of research during Roman times. And did you also know that apparently the Romans had already produced unbreakable glass? Regrettably we do not know (yet?) how they produced it other than speculating that they might have actually induced some form of superplasticity in these materials.