IAMS Summer School 2015

This year's Summer School will be jointly hosted by UCL's Institute of Archaeology. It will be held at the Institute of Archaeology in London and we welcome anyone with an interest in archaeometallurgy to attend our one week course.

Running for over a decade, the IAMS Summer School typically offers classes to those interested in the archaeology of metallurgy. The course is aimed at professionals, academics, students, and enthusiasts and covers a diverse range of topics, including mining, metal production, experimental reconstruction, field methods, to the analysis of metallic artefacts. Lectures typically cover both ferrous and non-ferrous metals and

 will involve artefact handling sessions as well as demonstrations with analytical instruments such as a scanning electron microscope with attached energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS) and portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF). Past summer schools have been held as far away as Beijing and at times have had an overall theme, but they tend to cover as broad a range of topics as possible.

This year IAMS is pleased to invite those interested in the field of ancient and historical metallurgy to attend our summer school on the last week of June and the first week of July. This year, the programme will be devided in two formats. The first week will include a lecture on iron smelting at UCL, followed by a three day experimental iron smelting workshop in Monkton Up Wimborne, Dorset. The workshop will focus primarily on the practical aspects of bloomery iron smelting, including ore preparation and roasting, furnace construction, smelting in two types of furnaces (induced and natural draft), slag formation and smithing. Students will be expected to get actively involved in these activities.

The second week will follow the traditional format, lectures will be given by a series of academic experts in their respective fields on various aspects of metallurgy. The lectures will focus primarily on copper and iron metallurgy, and please note that the demonstration on the analytical instrument will focus only on pXRF.

Details of the program can be found below or from the Summer School leaflet; although, it may yet be subject to some changes.

Information

Date: 29th June - 10^th July 2015
Location: UCL Institute of Archaeology, London, UK
Number of places: limited, please contact Tere Plaza

Fee: £450 for both weeks. £300 first week, £200 second week. Special discount for UCL students (contact Tere Plaza). 

Some limited funding available - please contact us for further information
Contact person: Tere Plaza, email:  maria.plaza.12@ucl.ac.uk

Final schedule

Monday 29th	Dr. Michael Charlton	Foundations of bloomery iron smelting.
Tuesday- Thursday 30th-2nd	Jake Keen Dr. Michael Charlton Prof. Marcos Martinón-Torres	Experimental iron smelting workshop in Monkton Up Wimborne, Dorset. *Details below.
Monday-Tuesday 6th-7th	Dr. Brigitte Cech	Archaeometallurgy in the field. Mining technology and smelting sites.
Wednesday 8th	Dr. Eleanor Blakelock	Metallography and microstructure of archaeological metal objects
Thursday 9th	Prof. Marcos Martinón-Torres	pXRF in archaeometallurgy
Friday 10th	Prof. Marcos Martinón-Torres	Ores, metals, crucibles and slag. Handling session

List of speakers

Dr. Brigitte Cech - UCL Qatar

Dr. Michael Charlton - UCL Institute of Archaeology

Dr. Eleanor Blakelock - Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Professor Marcos Martinón-Torres - UCL Institute of Archaeology

(Please click the speaker's name for their academic background and interests) 

*Experimental iron smelting workshop logistics: Departure from London on Tuesday morning, and return on Thursday evening. We will spend the nights at the nearby Church Farm camping site, which has showers, electricity and all necessary facilities. Students will be expected to bring their camping gear (tent and sleeping bag). Most of the day activities will take place outdoors, so waterproof clothing and strong boots will be necessary too. Transport, materials and meals during the workshop are included in the registration fee.