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Marcos Martinón-Torres

Research interests

  • Alchemy, chemistry and metallurgy in the Renaissance world
  • Technical ceramics: the production and consumption of crucibles
  • Materials, recipes and choices: cupels and cupellation remains
  • The theory and practice of brassmaking
  • Material culture encounters in America: metals and metallurgy before and after the European contact
  • Specialisation and standardisation: making weapons for the Terracotta Army
  • Metals and metallurgy in Africa
  • Life-histories of megaliths and the history of archaeology

Research Directory

Educational Background

  • 2001-2005. PhD Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
  • 2000-2001. MSc in the Technology and Analysis of Archaeological Materials. University College London
  • 1999-2001. DEA (Advanced Studies Diploma) in Archaeology and Ancient History. University of Santiago de Compostela
  • 1999. MRes (Tesis de Licenciatura) in Archaeology. University of Santiago de Compostela
  • 1995-1999. Licenciatura with Extraordinary Degree Prize in History. Speciality: Archaeology. University of Santiago de Compostela

Books

  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. (eds) 2008. Archaeology, History and Science: Integrating Approaches to Ancient Materials. (UCL Institute of Archaeology Publications). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press [publisher link].
  • Martinón-Torres, M. (with a contribution by Martinón-Torres, María) 2004. Xaquín Lorenzo ‘Xocas’: Confesións e lembranzas para mozos de onte e hoxe. Santiago de Compostela: Sotelo Blanco Edicións.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2001. Os monumentos megalíticos despois do Megalitismo: Arqueoloxía e Historia dos megalitos galegos a través das fontes escritas (s. VI – s. XIX). Valga (Spain): Concello de Valga.

Articles

2012

  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2012. Inside Solomon’s House: An Archaeological Study of the Old Ashmolean Chymical Laboratory in Oxford. Ambix 59/1, 22-48 [publisher]
  • Uribe Villegas, M. A. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2012. Typology, Technology, Composition and Context of Muisca Metalwork (Colombia, AD 600-1800): a Database. Journal of Open Archaeology Data 1(1) [DOI, metadata for a database that can be accessed at UCL Discovery]
  • Uribe Villegas, M. A. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2012. Composition, colour and context in Muisca votive metalwork (Colombia, AD 600-1800). Antiquity 86, in press.
  • Martinón-Torres, M., Valcarcel Rojas, R., Guerra, M. F. and Saenz Samper, J. 2012 Metallic encounters in Cuba: the technology, exchange and meaning of metals before and after Columbus. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, in press.
  • Charlton, M. F., Blakelock, E., Martinón-Torres, M. and Young, T. 2012. Investigating the production provenance of iron artifacts with multivariate methods. Journal of Archaeological Science 39, 2280-2293 [publisher]
  • Murillo-Barroso, M. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2012. Amber sources and trade in the Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. European Journal of Archaeology 15/2, in press.
  • Zhou, W., Martinón-Torres, M., Chen, J., Liu, H. and Li, Y. 2012. Distilling zinc for the Ming Dynasty: the technology of large scale zinc production in Fengdu, southwest China. Journal of Archaeological Science 39, 908-921 [publisher]
  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren. Th. 2012. Analytical study of iron slag from the Novgorod hinterland, in M. Brisbane, N. Makarov and E. Nosov (eds), The Archaeology of Medieval Novgorod in Context: Studies in Centre/Periphery Relations, 185-194. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren. Th. 2012. Analytical study of iron slag from the Novgorod hinterland, in M. Brisbane, N. Makarov and E. Nosov (eds), The Archaeology of Medieval Novgorod in Context: Studies in Centre/Periphery Relations, 185-194. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

2011

  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2011. Some recent developments in the historiography of alchemy. Ambix 58/3, 215-237 [publisher]
  • Martinón-Torres, M., Li, X. J., Bevan, A., Xia, Y., Kun, Z. and Rehren, Th. 2011. Making weapons for the Terracotta Army. Archaeology International 13/14, 65-75 [pdf]
  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Ladra, L. 2011. Orígenes del dorado por amalgama: aportaciones desde la orfebrería protohistórica del noroeste de la Península Ibérica. Trabajos de Prehistoria 68/1, 187-198 [pdf]

  • Sáenz Samper, J. and Martinón-Torres, M. Gold in Amerika, in R. Slotta and I. Schnepel (eds), Schätze der Anden - Chiles Kupfer für die Welt, 245-256. Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum [pdf]
  • Pryce, T. O., Pollard, M., Martinón-Torres, M, Pigott, V. C. and Pernicka, E. 2011. Southeast Asia's first isotopically defined prehistoric copper production system: when did extractive metallurgy begin in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of Central Thailand? Archaeometry 53, 146-163 [pdf]
  • Li, X. J., Martinón-Torres, M., Meeks, N. D., Yin, X. and Kun, Z. 2011. Inscriptions, filing, grinding and polishing marks on the bronze weapons from the Qin Terracotta Army in China. Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 492-501 [pdf]
  • Holmqvist, V. E. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2001. Many Potters – One Style: Pottery Production and Distribution in Transitional Late Byzantine–Early Islamic Palaestina Tertia, in I. Turbanti-Memmi (ed), Proceedings of the 37th International Symposium on Archaeometry, 71-76. Belin: Springer-Verlag [pdf]

2010

  • Kearns, T. Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. 2010. Metal to mould: alloy identification in experimental casting moulds using XRF. Historical Metallurgy 44(1), 48-58 [pdf].
  • Valcárcel Rojas R., Martinón-Torres M., Cooper J. and Rehren, Th. 2010. Turey Treasure in the Caribbean. In S. Kepecs, A. Curet and G. de la Rosa (eds), Beyond the Blockade: New Currents in Cuban Archaeology, 106-125. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2010. Of marks, prints, pots and becherovka: freemasons' branding in early modern Europe? in A. Bevan and D. Wengrow (eds), Cultures  of Commodity Branding, 213-233. (UCL Institute of Archaeology Publications). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
  • Pryce, T. O., Pigott, V. C., Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. 2010. Prehistoric copper production and technological reproductionin the Khao Wong Prachan Valleyof Central Thailand. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 2, 237-264 [pdf].
  • Murillo-Barroso, M., Pryce, T. O., Bellina, B. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2010. Khao Sam Kaeo – an archaeometallurgical crossroads for trans-asiatic technological traditions. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(7), 1761-1772 [pdf].
  • Chaplin, T. D., Clark, R. J. H. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2010. A combined Raman microscopy, XRF and SEM–EDX study of three valuable objects – A large painted leather screen and two illuminated title pages in 17th century books of ordinances of the Worshipful Company of Barbers, London. Journal of Molecular Structure 976, 350–359 [pdf].

2009

  • Ladra, L. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2009.Variacións tecnolóxicas e preferencias culturais: estudo analítico dos ouros do Castro de Viladonga. Croa: Boletín da Asociación de Amigos do Castro de Viladonga 19, 32-43 [pdf].
  • Hudgins, C. C., Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. 2009. From the mines to the colonies: archaeolgical evidence for the exchange and metallurgical usage of English copper in early seventeenth-century Ireland and Virginia, in A. Horning and N. Brannon (eds), Ireland and Britain in the Atlantic World, 157-180. (Irish Post-Medieval Archaeology Group Proceedings 2). Dublin: Wordwell.
  • Martinón-Torres, M., Rehren, Th., Thomas, N. and Mongiatti, A. 2009. Identifying materials, recipes and choices: some suggestions for the study of archaeological cupels, in Archaeometallurgy in Europe 2007: Selected papers from 2nd International Conference, Aquileia, Italy, 17-21 June 2007, 435-445. Milano: Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia.
  • Mongiatti, A., Rehren, Th., Martinón-Torres, M. and Cech, B. 2009. Smelting of gold and silver ores in Renaissance Austria, in Archaeometallurgy in Europe 2007: Selected papers from 2nd International Conference, Aquileia, Italy, 17-21 June 2007, 60-67. Milano: Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia.
  • Iles, L. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2009. Pastoralist iron production in the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya: wider implications for archaeometallurgical studies. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 2314-2326 [pdf].
  • MacDonald, K.C., Vernet, R., Martinón-Torres, M. and Fuller, D. Q. 2009. Dhar Nema: from early agriculture to metallurgy in southeastern Mauritania. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 44(1), 3-48 [pdf].
  • Mongiatti, A., Martinón-Torres, M., and Rehren, Th. 2009. Testing ores for gold and silver in Renaissance Austria: new techniques, new discoveries, in J-F. Moreau, R. Auger, J. Chabot and A. Herzog (eds), Proceedings of the 36th International Symposium on Archaeometry, April 2006, Quebec, 444/37-444/46. (Les cahiers d'archeologie du CELAT, 25; Series Archeometrie, 7), Quebec: Universite Laval.
  • Thondhlana, T. P. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2009. Small size, high value. Composition and manufacture of copper-base beads from Second Millennium AD northern Zimbabwe. Journal of African Archaeology 7(1), 79-97 [pdf].
  • Blakelock, E., Martinón-Torres, M., Veldhuijzen, H.A. and Young, T. 2009. Slag inclusions in iron objects and the quest for provenance: an experiment and a case study. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 1745-1757 [pdf].
  • Humphris, J., Martinón-Torres, M., Rehren, Th. and Reid, A. 2009. Variability in single smelting episodes - a pilot study using slag from Uganda. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 359-369 [pdf].
  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. 2009. Post-medieval crucible production and distribution: a study of materials and materialities. Archaeometry 51(1), 49-74. [pdf]

2008

  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Verrocchio, V. 2008. Triangular crucibles from the Convent of San Domenico in L’Aquila. Archeologia Postmedievale 12, 97-113 [pdf].
  • Martinón-Torres, M., Thomas, N. Rehren, Th. and Mongiatti, A. 2008. Some problems and potentials of the study of cupellation remains: the case of post-medieval Montbéliard. ArcheoSciences: Revue d’Archeometrie 32, 59-70 [full text].
  • Martinón-Torres, M., Freestone, I. C., Hunt, A. and Rehren, Th. 2008. Mass-produced mullite crucibles in medieval Europe: manufacture and material properties. Journal of the American Ceramic Society 91(5), 2071-2074 [pdf].
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2008. Los orígenes alquímicos de la química moderna: una perspectiva arqueológica. Anales de Química 104(4), 310-317 [pdf].
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2008. Why should archaeologists take history and science seriously? in M. Martinón-Torres and Th. Rehren (eds), Archaeology, History and Science: Integrating Approaches to Ancient Materials, 15-36 (UCL Institute of Archaeology Publications). Walnut Creek CA: Left Coast Press.
  • Rehren, Th. and Martinón-Torres, M. 2008. Naturam ars imitata: European brassmaking between craft and science, in M. Martinón-Torres and Th. Rehren (eds), Archaeology, History and Science: Integrating Approaches to Ancient Materials, 167-188 (UCL Institute of Archaeology Publications). Walnut Creek CA: Left Coast Press.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2008. El megalito ha muerto. ¡Larga vida al megalito! PH: Boletín de Instituto Andaluz de Patrimonio Histórico 67, 92-95. (Número Monográfico dedicado a Patrimonio Megalítico, ed. L. García Sanjuán). [pdf].
  • Martinón-Torres, M., Cooper, J., Valcárcel Rojas, R. and Rehren, Th.2008. Diversifying the picture: Indigenous responses to European arrival in Cuba. Archaeology International 10, 37-40. [pdf]
  • Cooper, J., Martinón-Torres, M. and Valcárcel Rojas, R. 2008. American gold and European brass: metal objects and indigenous values in the cemetery of El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba, in C. L. Hofman, M. L. P. Hoogland and A. Van Gijn (eds), Crossing the Borders: New methods and techniques in the study of material culture in the Caribbean. Alabama: University of Alabama Press.

2007

  • Martinón-Torres, M., Valcárcel Rojas, R., Cooper, J. and Rehren, Th. 2006. Metals, microanalysis and meaning: a study of metal objects excavated from the indigenous cemetery of El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(2): 194-204 [pdf].
  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. 2007. Trials and errors in search of mineral wealth: metallurgical experiments in early colonial Jamestown. Rittenhouse: the Journal of the American Scientific Instrument Enterprise 21: 82-97.
  • Valcárcel Rojas, R., Martinón-Torres, M., Cooper, J. and Rehren, Th. 2007. Oro, guanines y latón. Metales en contextos aborígenes de Cuba. El Caribe Arqueológico 10, 116-131.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2007. The tools of the chymist: archaeological and scientific analyses of early modern laboratories, in L. M. Principe (ed), Chymists and Chymistry: Studies in the History of Alchemy and Early Chemistry, 149-163. Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications and Chemical Heritage Foundation.

2006

  • Thomas, N., Martinón-Torres, M., Goy, C. and Rehren, Th. 2006. La fouille archéologique du quartier Velotte à Montbéliard : nouvelles données sur des opérations de chimie oubliées, Bulletin de la Société d’émulation de Montbéliard 129, 441-465 [pdf]
  • Martinón-Torres, M., Rehren, Th. and Freestone, I. C. 2006. Mullite and the mystery of Hessian wares. Nature 444, 437-438 (23 November 2006). [pdf, and supplementary online information here]
  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. 2006. The ‘mystery’ of the post-medieval triangular crucibles reconsidered – a global perspective, in J. Pérez-Arantegui (ed), Proceedings of the 34th International Symposium on Archaeometry, Zaragoza, 3-7 May 2004 , 515-524. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico. [pdf] [full volume available here pdf file: 14 MB]
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2006. On the life-histories of megaliths in Northwest Iberia, in Rodríguez Casal, A. A. (ed), The Atlantic Megaliths. Acts of the XIVth UISPP Congress, University of Liege, Belgium, 2-8 September 2001, 43-51 (BAR International Series 1521). Oxford: Archaeopress

-2005

  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. 2005. Ceramic materials in fire assay practices: a case study of 16th-century laboratory equipment, in M. I. Prudencio, M. I. Dias and J. C. Waerenborgh (eds), Understanding people through their pottery, 139-149 (Trabalhos de Arqueologia 42). Lisbon: Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia. [pdf]
  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. 2005. Alchemy, chemistry and metallurgy in Renaissance Europe. A wider context for fire assay remains. Historical Metallurgy 39(1), 14-31. [pdf]
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2004. El Padre Sarmiento y el Megalitismo gallego. Cuadernos de Estudios Gallegos 117, 435-448.
  • Martinón-Torres, M., Rehren, Th. and von Osten, S. 2003. A 16th-century lab in a 21st-century lab: archaeometric study of the laboratory remains from Oberstockstall, Austria. Antiquity 77(298) online [http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/martinon/index.html].
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2003. Química en arqueología y la arqueología de la química: el ensayo. Gallaecia 22, 383-405.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. 2002. Agricola and Zwickau: Theory and practice of Renaissance brass production in SE Germany. Historical Metallurgy 36(2), 95-111. [pdf]
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2002. Defying God and the King: a 17th-century gold rush for ‘megalithic treasure’. Public Archaeology 2(4), 220-235.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2001. Los megalitos de término. Crónica del valor territorial de los monumentos megalíticos a partir de las fuentes escritas. Trabajos de Prehistoria 58 (1), 95-108.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. and Rodríguez Casal, A. A. 2000. Aspectos historiográficos del Megalitismo gallego: de la documentación medieval al siglo XIX, in Arias, P., Bueno, P., Cruz, D., Enríquez, J.X., Oliveira, J. de, and Sanches. M.J. (eds), Neolitizaçâo e Megalitismo da Península Ibérica. Actas do III Congresso de Arqueologia Peninsular (Vila Real, Portugal, September 1999), vol. III, 303-319. Porto: ADECAP.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2000. Murguía visto por..., in X. Rábade Paredes, A vida de Manuel Murguía. (Col. Árbore). Vigo (Spain): Galaxia.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2000. Análisis del ‘Megalitismo Céltico’ en la Galicia del siglo XIX. Gallaecia 19, 287-309.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2000. Murguía e a Arqueoloxía galega. Boletín da Real Academia Galega 361, 221-244.

Reviews

  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2011. Is that stone genuine? Review of Marco Beretta: The alchemy of glass: counterfeit, imitation and transmutation in ancient glassmaking. Metascience [publisher]
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2008. ¿Hay futuro para la arqueometria iberica? El VII Congreso Iberico de Arqueometria. Trabajos de Prehistoria 65(2), 179-180 [pdf]
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2004. Archaeometallurgy at the 34th International Symposium on Archaeometry. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology (PIA) 15, 106-109.
  • Martinón-Torres, M. 2002. Review of: Cornelius J. Holtorf: Monumental Past: The Life-histories of Megalithic Monuments in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany). Papers from the Institute of Archaeology (PIA) 13, 131-137.

This list,  together with my research interests, will give you an idea of the type of projects that I am willing to supervise. I am happy to consider informal queries from students who would like to work with me on related subjects.

Current Students

  • Ruth Fillery Travis A diachronic analysis of Romano-British iron production in the Exmoor region (second supervisors Joe Flatman and Kris Lockyear)
  • Thomas Thondhlana Metal workers and smelting precincts: an a rchaeometallurgical investigation of copper production in the Northern Lowveld, South Africa, c.AD 700 - 1900 (second supervisor Thilo Rehren)
  • Wenli Zhou The technology and organisation of zinc production in Chongqing, China during the Ming and Qing dynasties (second supervisor Thilo Rehren)
  • Chris Lagen The manufacture and meaning of Early Medieval Pewter (joint supervision with Andrew Reynolds)
  • Janice (Xiuzhen) Li Defining and Interpreting Specialization and Standardization: the Bronze Weapons of the Terra-cotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty,China (joint supervision with Andrew Bevan, second supervisor Thilo Rehren)
  • Carmen Ting Revisiting the 'Classic Maya Collapse': Technological analysis of the Bukphase ceramics in the Maya Lowlands (joint supervision with Elizabeth Graham)

Second Supervisor

  • Siran Liu Gold/silver smelting technology in historical period China (principal supervisor Thilo Rehren)
  • Teresa Moreno The analysis and conservation of American Indian silver jewellery (principal supervisor Elizabeth Pye)
  • Roseleen Bains The social significane of stone bead technology at Neolithic  Catalhoyuk, Turkey (principal supervisor Karen Wright)

Previous Students

  • Louise Iles (2011) Technology, Society and 'Tradition': reconstructing the iron industries in Bunyoro-Kitara (principal supervisor Andrew Reid)
  • Virpi Holmqvist (2010) Ceramics in transition: a comparative analytical study of late Byzantine-early Islamic pottery in Southern Transjordan and the Negev (joint supervision with Thilo Rehren)
  • Jane Humphris (2010): An archaeometallurgical investigation of iron smelting traditions in Southern Rwanda (principal supervisor Andrew Reid)
  • Aude Mongiatti (2009): Assaying and smelting noble metals in sixteenth-century Austria: a comparative analytical study (with Thilo Rehren)
  • Oli Pryce (2009): Prehistoric copper production and technological reproduction in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand (with Vincent Pigott and Thilo Rehren)
These are some undergraduate and Masters' dissertations I have recently supervised:
  • Engraved in metal: Goldworking technologies at the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. From Nahuange to Tairona, AD 100 - AD 1600 (Juanita Saenz, MSc 2010)
  • Investigating a probable medieval illicit mint at Hargnies in the Ardennes (David Dearlove, MSc 2010)
  • An analytical study of material from a sixteenth and seventeenth century bronze foundry in the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) (Alexander Guthrie Stewart, MSc 2010)
  • Iron technology in peninsular Thailand: Evidence from 2nd century BC sites at Khaeo Sam Keao and Phu Khao Thong (Lynn Biggs, MSc 2009)
  • The Gresham Shipwreck: An investigation on the iron bars (Thomas Birch, MSc 2009)
  • Negotiating a Colonial Maya Identity: Metal ornaments from the Church Cemetery at Tipu, Belize (Bryan Cockrell, MSc 2009)
  • Stone beads and bead making as a craft in the Neolithic: the case of the Azraq 31 site in Jordan (Ioannis Papadias, MSc 2009)
  • Looking for meaning: a multidisciplinary study of variation in Roman Horse-and-Rider brooches (Ruth Fillery-Travis, MSc 2008)
  • Technology and craft organisation in the production of moulded-carved ceramics in the Maya Lowlands (Carmen Ting, MSc 2008)
  • Khao Sam Kaeo in the trans-Asiatic exchange system: an approach from the copper-base metallurgy (Mercedes Murillo-Barroso, MSc 2008)
  • Assessing the effectiveness of late medieval cupel recipes through experimental approaches (Tara DeFabrizio, BSc 2008)
  • The technology of silver processing: a comparison of two sites at Porco, Bolivia (Barbara Kulhanek, MSc 2007)
  • Materials, Manufacture, Meaning: Non-Destructive Analyses of the Anglo-Saxon Pewter Hoard from Cheapside, London (Christopher Lagen, MSc 2007)
  • Slag Inclusions and the Quest for Provenance: Slag and Slag Inclusion Analyses of Artefacts from Tell Hammeh, Jordan and Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel (Eleanor Blakelock, MSc 2007)
  • From chemical analyses to meaning: a study of materials and choices in Muisca metalwork from Pre-hispanic Colombia (Maria Alicia Uribe, MA 2007)
  • An investigation of fabrication technology and composition of copper and copper alloy beads from second millennium AD archaeological sites in Northern Zimbabwe (Thomas Thondhlana, MSc 2007)
  • An Investigation of the Iron-working remains from Caherlehillan, Co. Kerry, Ireland: an Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Site (Therese Kearns, MSc 2006)
  • An archaeometallurgical investigation of pastoralist iron production on the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya (Louise Iles, MSc 2006)
  • Neolithic Peterborough Wares: Characterisation, Manufacture and Technology of Vessels from West London (Louise Rayner, MSc 2006)
  • The making of modern chemistry: an archaeometric study of the laboratory remains from Solomon’s House in Oxford (Kai Maraun, BSc 2006)
  • Metal to Mould: an experimental study of casting moulds using ED-XRF (Therese Kearns, BSc 2005)
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