Material Worlds

Thematic research encompassing ‘Material Worlds‘ includes: 

• artefact typology and beyond to technology and practices of production
• materials analysis of lithics, metals, glass, ceramics and other artificial materials
• imaging of organic remains (environmental, artefactual, and for conservation treatments)
• interface between materials analysis and conservation science
• cultural memory, archaeologies of contextual meaning, sociologies and anthropologies of art
• movement and mobility of objects through trade and exchange

The Wolfson Archaeological Science laboratories are outstanding and support world-leading research in materials analysis. Materials Analysis in Archaeology aims to characterise the materials used by past people, using approaches adapted from the natural sciences. This data is then used to reconstruct human interaction with the environment and environmental conditions, as well as production and manufacturing technologies, trade contacts, and movement of ideas and materials across time and space.

Selected current and recent research projects

• Art History and Social Theory
• Coin hoards of the Roman Republic
• Conquest, Ecology and Economy in Islamic North Africa: The Example of the Central Medjerda Valley (ISLAMAFR)
• Discovering the (R)Evolution of EurAsian Steppe Metallurgy: Social and environmental impact of the Bronze Age steppes metal-driven economy (DREAM)
• Imperial Logistics: The Making of the Terracotta Army
• Inka Ceramics
• Investigating the manufacture, trade, and economy of Roman leather via multi-analytical approaches (PELLIS)
• Late Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Ceramic Production and Distribution
• Making Crusader Glass: Production, Trade and Technological Change
• Making Oasis Civilisation in the Moroccan Sahara (OASCIV)
• Peshdar Plain Project
• Pyramidal Stone Anchors of the 4th-5th century BC Mediterranean
• Qin Imperial Iron, Tomb M1 and the First Emperor’s Mausoleum: Character, Context and Consequence
• Rapa Nui Landscapes of Construction
• Raqchi
• The Form and Fabric of a Deep Mediterranean Cultural Tradition: Chios Storage Jars from Prehistory to the Present
• The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia
• Tracing Medieval Glass Economies