Bronze Age British Faience
Around 350 Bronze Age faience beads and pendants are known from Britain and Ireland, mostly from burials of cremated human bone. Their relationship with Near Eastern and Mediterranean faience has long been debated. A joint National Museum of Scotland/Harvard/Cranfield project is investigating their origin, composition, manufacture and use (inter alia) for a Corpus of faience from Britain, Ireland and adjacent parts of mainland Europe.
Non-destructive controlled-pressure scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive microanalysis (CP-SEM-EDS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and binocular microscopy provide compositional and textural information without sampling or coating. Wavelength-dispersive electron microprobe (EMP) analysis of rare polished samples provides more accurate compositional information for comparison with data from non-destructive techniques. The results demonstrate that direct derivation from Egyptian or Mediterranean faience traditions can be ruled out and that various forming and glazing techniques were used.
We have further investigated the effects of cremation on faience by experimentally cremating a pig wearing a newly-made faience necklace.
This work won a trophy prize for the best paper in session at the: MRS Fall 2004 Conference in Boston USA
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Dr Andrew J Shortland
T: +44 (0)1793 785642
E: a.shortland@cranfield.ac.uk
Centre for Archaeological and Forensic Analysis
Centre for Forensic Anthropology Research
