Course on ancient metals

"Ancient and Historic Metals: Technology, Microstructure, and
    Corrosion"
Held at UCLA: Los Angeles
July 4-8, 2011.
Instructor: Professor David A. Scott

Course Aims: This five-day course will act both as an introduction
and a focus of more intensive study dealing with the examination,
analysis, metallographic examination and deterioration of ancient
and historic metals.  The course is designed to benefit
conservators, scientists  and archaeologists  who wish to learn how
to prepare metallic samples for metallographic study, learn
something of the technological  aspects of the working and structure
of metals, and how corrosion and patination can be discussed and
examined.

Artefacts for examination: Over the past 27 years an unrivalled
collection of mounted metallographic samples  has been assembled,
which are studied as part of the course practical work, involving
both polarized light microscopy and metallographic microscopy of
both freshly polished and etched samples. These samples range from
cast iron from China to wootz steel from India, bronze coinage
alloys from the Roman Empire to high-tin bronze from ancient
Thailand, silver alloys from the Parthian period to ancient Ecuador,
gilded copper and tumbaga from Peru and Colombia, to mention only a
few of the geographical areas covered by available samples. Course
participants will be instructed in the use of polishing and etching
in the examination of samples and are encouraged to keep digital
images of the samples they have prepared during the week.  Students
may also bring their own samples  for examination if mounted and
ground, or if not mounted, then one or two samples may be brought
which can be mounted and prepared during the course.

Course Instructor:

    David A. Scott, Professor, Department of Art History, UCLA, and
    Director of the MA program in Archaeological and Ethnographic
    Conservation.  His book, Copper and Bronze in Art: Corrosion,
    Colorants, Conservation won the prize from the Association of
    American Publishers as the best Scholarly/Art book published in
    the USA in 2002. His book on Iron and Steel: Corrosion,
    Colorants, Conservation, written with Professor Gerhard Eggert,
    was published from London in July 2009. Professor Scott's most
    recent book is very relevant for this course, and was published
    in 2011, it is: "Ancient Metals: Microstructure and Metallurgy,
    Volume 1" Published by CSP: Conservation Science Press, ISBN
    978-0-9829338-0-0. Available from the author at a cheaper price
    than Amazon, for $58.00  US,  including postage.

    If interested send e-mail to:  dascott<-a t->ucla< . >edu. Dr. Scott has
    published over 100 papers in the peer-reviewed literature, five
    books, and has been  an editor for the journal 'Studies in
    Conservation? for the past 26 years.

Course Schedule: The course will be held over the five days
Monday-Friday July 4-July 8,  2011.  The course will be held at UCLA
in the basement of the Fowler Museum Building, Room A312, on the
UCLA campus.  Many nearby hotels and parking available and details
will be sent of a list of hotels on request.  The course will run
from 9:15am-5pm each day.

The course is open to a maximum of 10 participants only.

Course Costs:  The cost of the instruction for the five days will be
$850.00 or sterling equivalent of this amount (530 Pounds Sterling).
For details of payment and to register for this course, please
contact the course organizer and director:

     Professor David A. Scott,
     Room A410,
     The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA
     405 Hilgard Avenue,
     Los Angeles CA 90095-1510, USA
     dascott<-a t->ucla< . >edu

Course Details:

Monday:

     Introduction, use of the metallurgical microscope, the mounting
     and polishing  of samples, their preparation, use of resins,
     grinding and polishing.  Introduction to phase diagrams and
     their application to ancient bronzes and copper alloys.
     Copper-arsenical, copper-nickel, and copper-tin alloys. Casting
     and working of metals and aspects of bronze casting in the
     ancient world.  Etching of some copper alloys. Recording of
     samples with digital camera and case studies in the examination
     of a group of copper alloy plaques and a bronze figurine of the
     God Osiris will be discussed.

Tuesday:

     Continuation of the examination of copper-tin and
     copper-tin-lead alloys. Ancient coinage alloys of the Roman
     period, examination of copper-arsenic bronzes, aspects of the
     corrosion of bronze and copper alloys. The Pourbaix diagram and
     some of its applications.  The extraction of metals from their
     ores and some principles of the Ellingham diagram.

Wednesday:

     The phase diagram for copper-silver and lead-tin alloys.
     Examination of silver and debased silver alloys.  Surface
     enrichment and corrosion. Problems in the authentication of
     ancient silver and bronze alloys. Metallographic  examination
     of ancient silver alloys and techniques of etching silver.
     Discontinuous precipitation phenomena and the age of silver
     alloys. Colour etching of both copper alloys  and silver
     alloys. The Philosopher plate and the Strozzi silver basin:
     case studies from the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Thursday:

     Mounting of samples brought by students. Examination of some
     ternary phase issues in relation to gold-silver-copper alloys.
     The corrosion of tumbaga alloys and aspects of the Pourbaix
     diagram. Video concerning the extraction of iron and steel.
     Introduction to iron and steel.  The principles of corrosion
     and the eight types of corrosion of metals. The examination of
     iron from meteorites. The technology of ancient iron and steel
     in the West, in India and in China will be contrasted and
     samples illustrating these different technologies examined. The
     metallography of ancient iron alloys.

Friday:

     Corrosion issues of iron and steel.  Weathering steel and
     patinas, the nature of iron corrosion products and their
     implications for the stabilization of iron artefacts during
     conservation treatments. Problems with the examination of lead,
     lead-tin, zinc, and aluminium alloys.  The reasons why brass
     was made by cementation, the extraction of metallic zinc and
     examination of samples of brass alloys.  The use of solders and
     aspects of tinning of ancient bronzes.  Examination of mounted
     specimens prepared on the Tuesday, and continuation of
     practical metallography. Gold and gold alloys: gilding:
     examination of gold alloys. Lecture on the technology of
     ancient gold alloys in South America. Continuation of
     metallographic practical examination.

Professor David A. Scott
Chair, UCLA/Getty Conservation Program
The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Room A410
University of California, Los Angeles
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:34
                Distributed: Thursday, January 13, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-34-019
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