archaeometallurgy

..for any  microscope you might happen to work with. During your microscopy sessions, did you ever wish for less of the dull work, such as noting meta data, contrast method, sample id, photo no or image width? Well – I did.

I did wish for a long time to have a way that my microscope and my camera would speak to each other whenever I change objectives. I am working with Zeiss Universal microscope, mostly with reflected polarising light, i.e. there is no objective revolver. I have to change the objectives individually, which of course, all has to do with the ability to centre the objective for certain steps in polarising microscopy.

To make a long story short: the old days where I have to sit there with a notepad and have to write down all these dull informations are over! From now on my camera, or rather my computer registers any change of my microscope objective and adds this information to my micrographs automatically.

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Wouldn’t it be great if you could add  meta data to your image  files while doing the actual photographing instead of having to do this afterwards in post processing? In this two part article I present how using QR codes and tethered shooting, can achieve this goal when documenting objects. It saves a lot of time, for example, during archaeological find processing and documentation. The first part deals with the manual creation of QR codes, the second part with a script-based solution, that automates the process of adding meta data to image files. Continue reading

This is a hands-on experiential archaeology course in one of the most important Celtic hill-top fortifications in central Europe: The Heuneburg in south western Germany. On April 26/27 we are holding an intensive course on the archaeometallurgy of bronze with loads of information to go alongside the practical experience of casting bronze the ancient way.

It has been my main objectives to foster the first hand experience of metallurgical processes alongside the scientific study of past archaeometallurgical activities. Together with the Heuneburg Open Air Museum we are now busy  developing the Heuneburg Academy, where hands-on experience is thought of as an equally important aspect of archaeometallurgy, as is for example scientific archaeology or archaeology. Only through an transdisciplinary approach will we able to better understand our forebears.

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