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The metals of antiquity are the seven metals which humans had identified and found use for in prehistoric times in Africa, Europe and throughout Asia: [1] gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, and mercury. Zinc, arsenic, and antimony were also known during antiquity, but they were not recognised as distinct metals until later.
Hepatizon (Greek etymology: ἧπαρ, English translation: "liver"), also known as black Corinthian bronze, was a highly valuable metal alloy in classical antiquity.It is thought to be an alloy of copper with the addition of a small proportion of gold and silver (perhaps as little as 8% of each), mixed and treated to produce a material with a dark purplish patina, similar to the colour of liver.
The addition of a second metal to copper increases its hardness, lowers the melting temperature, and improves the casting process by producing a more fluid melt that cools to a denser, less spongy metal. [6] This was an important innovation that allowed for the much more complex shapes cast in closed molds of the Bronze Age.
Orichalcum or aurichalcum / ˌ ɔːr ɪ ˈ k æ l k ə m / is a metal mentioned in several ancient writings, including the story of Atlantis in the Critias of Plato.Within the dialogue, Critias (460–403 BC) says that orichalcum had been considered second only to gold in value and had been found and mined in many parts of Atlantis in ancient times, but that by Critias's own time, orichalcum ...
The coinage metals comprise those metallic chemical elements and alloys which have been used to mint coins. Historically, most coinage metals are from the three nonradioactive members of group 11 of the periodic table: copper, silver and gold. Copper is usually augmented with tin or other metals to form bronze.
Vietnamese blue and white jar from Chu Đậu kilns, 14th century The Vietnamese had begun exporting their ceramic productions at least since late 13th century to 14th century. [ 6 ] According to archaeological findings in Vietnam and other countries from the 14th century, some Vietnamese ceramics and coins dated 1330 have been recovered from ...
Experimental archaeometallurgy is a subset of experimental archaeology that specifically involves past metallurgical processes most commonly involving the replication of copper and iron objects as well as testing the methodology behind the production of ancient metals and metal objects.
The definition of the term is not always precise, and institutional definitions such as museum "Departments of Antiquities" often cover later periods, but in normal usage Gothic objects, for example, would not now be described as antiquities, though in 1700 they might well have been, as the cut-off date for antiquities has tended to retreat since the word was first found in English in 1513.