Methods in Organic Archaeometry and their Application to the Terracotta Army

Abstract

Since the 1950s, the application of science to the study of the past is named archaeometry. : The main tasks of archaeometry are prospection, material analysis and dating. The scientific results ought to be discussed in the context of and together with the disciplines that ask the questions, e. g.archaeology, art history and conservation. This presentation tries to give a survey of methods for organic archaeometry. In this sense, organic archaeometry means the application of scientific methods to organic archaeological objects or residues. These materials mostly originate from natural products, such as oils and fats, waxes, bituminous materials, carbohydrates and cellulotic materials, proteins, natural resins and dyestuffs. Chemical analysis reveals the composition of a given material and in most cases either serves the identification or the preservation of an archaeological or artistic object. The classical chemical analysis must be considered out-dated and its application to objects of archaeology and art should be avoided. Particularly for organic chemical analysis a too large amount of sample material is required. On the other hand, the exactness of the results is generally low. Similar to infrared spectroscopy, only groups of substances can be found. It is useful to divide instrumental methods for organic analysis into spectrometric identification and substance separation by chromatography. The most prominent methods arc shown in fig. 1 together with a very general view over the field of application in archaeology and art.