Sayre, E. V., ed. (1988). Materials issues in art and archaeology: symposium held April 6-8.

Three different methods are available for studying fabrication methods, porosity, flaws, etc: ordinary X-rays with industrial quality film; xeroradiography with Xerox 126 and the new Xerox 175 systems; and a new X-ray image receptor with photostimulable phosphors. Advantages and limitations of each are assessed.

A wide range of elements can be examined by this sensitive technique.

Changes in paste preparation, surface coating, and firing techniques all allowed increases in scale, standardization, and quality. Pre-Roman imports and native copies are also looked at. The very large size of the database for this period, and the +20 yr accuracy in dating sometimes achievable, means that it is less the advanced modern technology than the amount and quality of the material for study that permits advances to be made. (Techniques used were SEM and EDXA - energy dispersive X-ray analysis.)

Study of the largest data set so far assembled for Irish glass compositions of 6th-l0th century was made using electron probe microanalyser and SEM. Data for transparent glass offer possibilities of assessing the amount of recycling being used - an appreciable amount here. The first evidence for manufacture in Ireland of opaque yellow lead-tin glass is seen. Crystalline inclusions in opaque glasses and in glassmaking crucibles were studied by SEM.

Discusses smelting of copper and iron; slags; thermodynamics of smelting; provenance studies.

A new interpretation of the Elder Pliny's chrysocolla is made as cadmium sulphide or greenockite, used in the Middle East, 1st to 9th centuries AD.

Traces the evolution of ironworking from occasional uses in the Bronze Age onwards, with particular reference to Slovenian weaponry. Steel was available at the end of 1BA (750-600 BC) but decreased from then to about 450 BC - the accompanying decrease in impurities suggesting that the earliest iron derived from copper smelting. A stagnant period followed, 450-300 BC; nothing was being quench-hardened and 'hot iron was being left around the workshop' to cool, until after 300 BC when quenching came in very slowly. Essentially we are seeing a Bronze Age use of iron in a limited context. The relationship of ironworking development and urban development needs closer study.