archaeometallurgy

A lion aquamanile from Halberstadt, Germany

The lion aquamanile you can see here I modelled after the aquamanile from Halberstadt. It is to date one of the very few aquamaniles that is still in its original context (Mende 2008). Aquamaniles, somtimes also referred to asaquamanale, aquimanile, aquamnilia is composed of the the two latin words aqua, for waterr und manus, for hand. The term aquamanile was used differently in medieval times than today: it mostly referred to the receptables of the water in the form of dishes or bowl. In contrast the vessel for pouring water was called urceus, i.e. latin for ewer (Wolter-von dem Knesebeck 2008, 217). Aquamaniles were used for the ritual cleansing of the priest before the mass. Apart from this ecclesiastic use aquamaniles were also to be found in secular households of high social status where they were used before meals.

Detail shot of the wax model

During the last month or so I modelled this 13th century aquamanile and cast it in bronze in my casting workshop using the lost wax technique. The model was made from wax and was prepared over a core of loam, just as it was described by the benedictine monk and artificer Theophilus Presbyter in his schedula diversarum artium in the chapter on the production of the cast incense burner. See here how the  article on the casting of the aquamanile  went in the reconstructed medieval loam mould.

To this end wax plates were applied to the loam core. This is also described by Theophilus. An alternative way to produce a wax layer of sufficient thickness would have been the repeated dipping into liquid wax. This however was not mentioned by Theophilus and therefore not used. After the wax plates had been applied the finer details, such as the mane or the eyes of the lion were shaped.

Detail shot of the aquamaniles face

The aquamanile weighs 3,6 kg and holds 1.35 l of water. This reconstructed aquamanile may be seen in its original function at the events of the french re-enactment project Fief et chevalerie. Contact me if you would like to purchase this or any other aquamanile.

References:

Ursula Mende 2008.
Catalogue entry 52 in: Michael Brandt (Hrsg), Bild & Bestie. Hildesheimer Bronze der Stauferzeit. 378p. 2008.

Harald Wolter-von dem Knesebeck 2008.
Zur Inszenierung und Bedeutung von Aquamanilien, in: Michael Brandt (Hrsg), Bild & Bestie. Hildesheimer Bronze der Stauferzeit. 2008.

Medi bronze aquamanile in the form of a lion

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Dies ist eine Neuschöpfung des mittelalterlichen bronzenen Löwenaquamaniles von Halberstadt. Das Original ist im Halberstädter Dommuseum. This is a lion aquamanile that was made after the medi bronze aquamanile of Halberstadt. The original is in the Halberstädter Dommuseum.

Slag samples of a medieval (12th century) copper smelting furnace.
Top left: #21, XPL. Under crossed polarisers the zinc sulphide can be seen as tiny dendrites within the glassy matrix. The other phases are willemite (wlm) and copper (Cu), which is usually asso ciated with the (Zn,Fe,Cu)S phase, an accompanying phase of copper matte at the Huneberg, from which it probably segregates upon solidification. Free iron oxides are seen as dark and much larger dendrites.
Top right: Another section of #21, under plain polarised light. It shows the abundant spinels, the iron oxides and copper inclusions. Most notably it shows the free baryte (brt) inclusion in the slag matrix.
Bottom left: #22, shows more free baryte (brt), together with a lead antimony matte. The long needles are a mixed iron and zinc oxides and are believed to be franklinite (frk?). #104, is rather more affected by corrosion than the other two samples. It shows mainly spinel (sp), free iron oxides and some willemite (wlm). Spinels are in the same order of magnitude than in the other samples.

The colloquial term Schlackologie is used by several German colleagues in the archaeometric sciences when it comes to the analysis and interpretation of mostly metallurgical slags. Literally it would translate to slagology. But why are slags investigated at all and what exactly is slag?

What are slags and what do they consist of?

Slags are by-products of metallurgical or pyro-technological processes and usually remain at the production site as waste product. For example metallurgical smelting slag is usually composed of five separate components:

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Custom made LED adapters are used for fitting the LED to your microscope. Upon request we can also do the conversion.

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The Universal LED Controller is able to drive and dim all prevalent LEDs. Brightness may be controlled continuously between 0 and 100 %. Especially the new and powerful LEDs require fine adjustment if they are used in the bright field. To this end the universal LED controller was fitted with switch reduce the maximum power to 160mA, and thus adjusting the brightness in the bright-field is possible with ease. Of course this range may also be set to a different level by the user.

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