========================================================================= Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 09:12:05 -0700 Reply-To: Radiocarbon Mailing List Sender: Radiocarbon Mailing List From: David Sewell Subject: Conference: Metals in Antiquity Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii [Forwarded announcement--please respond to the contact addresses given for more information. --DS] From: Suzanne Young To: isogeochem@list.uvm.edu Subject: Metals in Antiquity CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT: International Symposium: METALS IN ANTIQUITY At: Harvard University, 10-13 September 1997 The international symposium on Metals in Antiquity will be held at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA on 10-13 September 1997. The conference aims to promote an integrated and comprehensive understanding of ancient metallurgy. It will explore the distribution of metals in the natural environment, extractive metallurgy and fabrication processes as well as the social context, use and deposition of artefacts. The approach combines anthropology, archaeology and the earth sciences. It involves archaeological, mineralogical, chemical and isotopic investigations of ancient metal production, use and provenance. The conference will examine the current state of research and the potential for future development at the interface between archaeology and the earth sciences. It will be organized in five themes for oral presentation with a poster session and a workshop on analytical applications. (Conference outline given below.) There has been an overwhelming respose to the first circular with more than 300 expressions of interest from academic and professional colleagues worldwide including China, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the Cook Islands as well as Europe, Australia, South Africa, South, Central and North America. Keynote speakers are expected to include leading authorities from all of the disciplines involved. CALL FOR PAPERS: The conference organizers invite submission of abstracts for oral and poster presentations (see instructions below). There will be a limitted number of oral presentations in order to allow adequate time for complete presentations and full discussions to take place. (Papers for oral presentation will be selected strictly on the basis of their relevance to the central themes of the sessions as outlined.) There will be scope for a larger number of poster presentations on a wider range of related topics. Posters will be displayed throughout the conference and an evening poster session with refreshments has been scheduled to enable discussion. The conference organizers intend to publish a monograph related to the themes of the symposium and based on a selection of the papers presented. INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACTS: Those wishing to submit an abstract for oral or poster presentation should do so, in English, to Suzanne Young at the address given below. Abstracts will be reproduced for delegates and distributed with the conference programme. The abstract may include figures or data, but must be no more than 300 words and fit onto a single side of A4 or 8_ x 11 paper. Abstracts must be sufficiently informative to allow for proper evaluation in relation to the themes of the conference as outlined (Outline given below). Three copies of the abstract must be submitted to arrive no later than 1 April 1997. Late abstracts cannot be considered. Abstracts should be printed at laser printer quality using a Times or Times New Roman 12pt font. The abstract should clearly state the title (in bold text) at the top of the page followed by the author(s) and affiliation(s). References, if used, should be in the same style as the journal Antiquity. A covering letter should be submitted with the abstracts indicating the name and address of the corresponding author and stating the preference of the author(s) for oral or poster presentation. The conference organizers will make the final decision. CONFERENCE OUTLINE: Current research on ancient mining and archaeometallurgy The mineralogy and geochemistry of ore deposits and ancient extractive metallurgy The characterisation of ore deposits for studies of provenance and technology Reconstructing ancient metal production processes The social context of ancient metal production and use Theoretical aspects of ancient metallurgy The ethnography of metallurgy Workshop: Metals Analysis in Archaeology (For session details, please see our web site or request the second circular.) Up to date conference details can be found on the internet at the following address: http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/depart/resgrp/amrg/conf.html CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS: Suzanne Young Archaeometry Laboratories Harvard University Peabody Museum 11 Divinity Avenue Cambridge MA 02138, USA. Tel: +1 617 495 4388 Fax: +1 617 495 8925 E-mail: SYoung@FAS.Harvard.Edu AND Dr. Paul Budd Ancient Metals Research Group Department of Archaeological Sciences University of Bradford Bradford BD7 1DP, UK Tel: +44 (0)1274 383554 Fax: +44 (0)1274 385190 E-mail: P.Budd@bradford.ac.uk ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 02:17:00 -0500 Reply-To: Radiocarbon Mailing List Sender: Radiocarbon Mailing List From: Ted Johnson Subject: Conserving Petroglyphs for C-14 Dating Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Members of the List: We have discovered petroglyphs, which we believe pretty firmly, are connected with prehistoric copper miners involved in Michigan circa 5000 to 1000BC. The petroglyphs have been exposed for what we believe to be about 50 years to the elements. However, they continue beneath topsoil. We have touched a lot of the exposed figures, just clearing away debris to better define them. We have laid away some topsoil to prove their continuance, and not touched those. What are the possibilities of dating the ones we have touched, and what do we need to do to capture something from those that are not touched? It appears that those beneath the soil are more weathered, so to speak. Maybe that is just the soil chemicals eroding them more than those exposed to the environment. The most important thing is to date the engravings, those exposed, and those beneath the till that hopefully noone has prior exposed, and how we can preserve the engravings, and get the right type of specimens of the proximate rock to someone to analyze without degrading the engravings. The original discovery was from May 1996. Since that time we have been working to authenticate the originality, and then the interpretaion, which we have done. The next task is to determine dates, as there may have been sequencial activity from different groups within that time frame adding to the engravings. We would also like to compare these engrqavings with other discovered engravings from other parts of the world. Sincerely, Ted Johnson