Science and the Past / / Sheridan Bowman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Bowman, Sheridan,
• MitwirkendeR: Bowman, Sheridan,; Cowell, Michael,; Craddock, Paul,; Freestone, Ian,; Hughes, Michael,; Jones, Lea,; La Niece, Susan,; Main, Peter,; Middleton, Andrew,; Wilson, David,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©1991
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (192 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Foreword --; Preface --; List of Colour Plates --; 1. The Emergence of Scientific Inquiry into the Past --; 2. Ceramics: Materials for all reasons --; 3. Looking into Glass --; 4. Mining and Smelting in Antiquity --; 5. Metalwork: Artifice and artistry --; 6. Tracing to Source --; 7. Questions of Chronology --; 8. Spotting the Fakes --; 9. Computing and Mathematics: Putting two and two together --; 10. Computerising the Collections: The art of successful flea handling --; Glossary --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781442679634; 9783110490947
• DOI: 10.3138/9781442679634
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Sheridan Bowman.

The ancient artifacts so carefully restored and exhibited in museums open vast windows to our understanding of humanity's past. But for every question an artefact can answer about an earlier civilization, a dozen more are raised. How long ago was this made, with what techniques, and of what materials? What was it used for? How do we know it's authentic? Modern science is able to provide more and more answers to a wide variety of such fundamental questions. In this volume staff members of the British Museum's Department of Scientific Research explain how the physical and computer sciences are used to study and preserve the record of the past.The British Museum Research Laboratory is the oldest in the world attached to a museum; its staff writes with authority on the benefits (and pitfalls) of using modern scientific analysis to illuminate the technologies and achievements of the past.