Ancient Gilding Methods and Their Chemical Structure Essay

What is the appearance of reactant, Evidence of chemical reaction, and properties of a product?

Martin Robertson and Mary Beard’s manuscript, Adopting an Approach, focuses on the study of Athenian pottery. The manuscript begins, by describing Sir John Beazley and his revolutionary method of studying Greek vases. The Beazley Method focuses on the technical conventions of Greek Vases such as naming the artist, dating the pieces and then grouping them based off of similar characteristics. Beazley “provided for the first time a comprehensive framework of analysis for Athenian painting, and a way of dating and classifying.” (Pg. 16) However, what Beard’s main argument suggests is that it is not the artists that help us understand the importance of the vases because even if a vase is assigned to a specific time period or artist, there is

Pottery can not only tell us about the past, but it can also tell us about people’s beliefs and what people did in the past. Pottery was used for many purposes. It was made in many different shapes and sizes. Some pieces of pottery had unique pictures and designs on them. The pictures and designs expressed different types of things that went on in the daily lives of ancient Greeks. Music and entertainment, religious beliefs, death and burial traditions are a few aspects of Greek life that are pictured on many different types of ancient Greek pottery.

Colorimetric assay is a process determining the concentration of a chemical element or compound in a solution

In the kingdom of Benin, making castes with bronze was introduced to the rest of the world. “Now this kind of work is done with clay, and wax, and red metal (copper), and soldier (zinc) and lead, and fire…Next it is set aside to cool, then (the outside covering of clay) is broken off,” (Document 7). The art of creating bronze castes was very popular in Benin and the popularity soon spread to most of Northern Africa.

Scientists use an instrument called a spectrometer to quantitatively determine the amount of light absorbed by a solution. The primary inner parts of a typical spectrometer are described below. The spectrometer has a light source that emits white light containing a vast mixture of different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. The wavelength of interest is then selected using a monochromator (“mono” meaning one and “chromate” meaning color) and an additional exit slit. The separation of white light into different colors (wavelengths) is known as diffraction. The selected light then reaches the sample and depending on how the light interacts with the chemical compound of interest, some of the light is absorbed and some passes straight through. By comparing the amount of light entering the sample (P0) with the amount of light reaching the detector (P), the spectrometer is able to tell how much light is absorbed by the sample.

In this experiment you will observe some physical and some chemical changes. You will observe that energy must be used to start some chemical reactions, and that it is produced in others.

Answer: Gas chromatography (GC) – utilized by scientists in order to be able to separate the volatile

BOSTON, MA (June 23, 2014)—A world-class collection of jewels from ancient Nubia at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), will go on view this summer in Gold and the Gods: Jewels of Ancient Nubia. The MFA’s collection of Nubian adornments is the most comprehensive outside Khartoum—the result of an early 20th-century expedition by the Museum with Harvard University. The exhibition opens on July 19, and includes works by Nubian goldsmiths and jewelers, who were among the most innovative in the ancient world. Featuring some 100 excavated ornaments dating from 1700 BC to AD 300, which will be on view in the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Gallery, the exhibition explores the royal tombs of kings and queens, which were filled with elaborate jewelry such as necklaces, amulets, stacked bracelets and earrings. The MFA is unique in its ability to mount an exhibition of Nubian jewelry and adornment drawn exclusively from its own collection. In addition to gold––Nubia’s most important commodity––jewelry in the exhibition incorporates precious materials such as lapis lazuli (imported from Afghanistan), blue chalcedony (imported from Turkey), amethystine quartz and carnelian, as well as enamel and glass––both of which were rare and valuable new technologies at the time. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated MFA Publication on Nubian jewelry.

The first of these three methods is microscopy, used most notably by Walter C. McCrone. As defined by McCrone, microscopy is “the use of any tool or technique that allows us to identify microscopic objects.” This includes the use of the light microscope as well as more advanced types of microscopes such as the electron microscope and x-ray diffraction (McCrone 1976, p. 676 A). McCrone's methods using microscopy were desirable because they allow observations to be made on small samples so that no visible damage is done to the item being tested. When testing the Vinland Map, McCrone used a small needle with rubber cement on the tip to pick up ink particles. Particles were then observed, first using an optical stereo microscope, and then observed more closely with a series of more advanced microscopic techniques such as the electron microscope and x-ray diffraction (McCrone 1976).

The Earth’s Skin is like a city immersed and covered with silver and gold, or gold-threaded tapestry, its surface broken by shimmering red swags and black folds. Distance made a difference in understanding this artwork. As you move close we can see that the whole glinting thing is pieced together from countless tiny parts: pieces of colored metal pinched and twisted into strips, squares, circles and rosettes, linked together, like chain mail, with bits of copper wire. The beauty of this artwork is matched by the pleasure of recognizing that its magic is made with discarded bottle tops. The creation of the artwork is mainly done using liquor bottle caps. I got attracted to material that has had

Starting in the ancient cities of Mesopotamia, bronze sculptures have been discovered in these ruins (Sturgis). Many more were discovered in the decorated tombs of the Chinese emperors, the discovered towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, making a great influence on the Renaissance period (Sturgis). Bronze sculptures during this period came to the vanguard of art. However, many centuries had passed before the necessary tools were created to make bronze casting easier during the nineteenth century of the Industrial Revolution (Sturgis). Because of these utensils, bronze casting sprang to the top of the art world again. In recent times, Paris is known for their bronze sculptures since the middle of the nineteenth century. Factories for bronze casting leapt to the top in Paris in order “to cast editions of bronze sculptures for the hundreds of artists who specialized in bronze” (Sturgis). Paris became the place to go to in order to study this renowned style and have their own sculptured edited to bronze (Sturgis). This desire for the artistic fascination caused creations of many bronze sculptures whose beauty and majesty outshines the sculptures of modern times (Sturgis). Paris in the middle of the nineteenth century held the peak of captivation of this form of art.

Chemistry has been called the science of what things are. Its intent is the exploration of the nature of the materials that fabricate our physical environment, why they hold the different properties that depict them, how their atomic structure may be fathomed, and how they may be manipulated and changed.

Over thousands of years, jewelry has been worn by many people. Whether to show beauty, wealth or belief there is no era that can compare to the jewels of Ancient Egypt. At the beginning of the kingdom, precious stones and metals were discovered and worn like never seen before. Unfortunately, the remaining Egyptian jewelry that is displayed in Museums today is only a small fraction of what actually existed due to grave robbers. Questions such as how jewelry started, how it was made and worn, what the symbolization of jewelry was and who were the people that wore jewelry in Ancient Egypt will be answered.

The electron microscope has become one of the most widely utilized instruments for materials characterization. An electron microscope is a scientific instrument that allows us to “see” objects so small that they cannot be seen in any other way. (CITE) Electron microscopes have allowed scientists to see individual molecules and atoms for the first time.