Environments of Glass Patination in Western Australia

Abstract

Patina on ancient glass holds potential to interpreting formative environments climatically, pedogenically, hydrologically, hydro chemically, and biologically and, in more recent times, has the potential to interpreting sub-recent formative environments. In addition to experimental information, if patina is to be used as reliable indicators of past environmental conditions, there also needs to be a systematic examination of its development under a variety of fieldoriented conditions using varying glass types, i.e., various climate and soil types. We believe that it is useful to document the weathering effects on glass under a variety of field conditions, and this paper focuses on the range of patination in different environmental settings.