Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA USA
3-7 August 2003
| ICE-2003 GRAND BANQUET | ||
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Hyatt Grand Ballroom Cambridge, MA 6 August 2003 |
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| ICE-2003 will culminate in a reception and final banquet, to be held in the grand ballroom of the Hyatt Regency, Cambridge, just a short walk from the MIT campus. Dr. Pamela Vandiver, Materials Archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institution, will be the featured evening speaker. | ||
| When one views archaeological artifacts from thousands of years ago, one is often struck, aside from their beauty, by the sophistication of the objects in terms of materials design and quality- texture, color, strength and resistance to environmental degradation. Our ancestors were very clever in their use of materials and often we can only guess at how they approached their work. Dr. Pamela Vandiver applies modern analytical techniques in combination with replication experiments, and an understanding of the manner in which materials intersect with culture in order to accurately characterize ancient technologies and practices. In this way, she discovers what ancient people had to know and use to practice their technologies. In particular she has been interested in how ceramic technologies develop along different trajectories that highlight socio-cultural, environmental and resource variability as well as how materials link cultural areas heretofore considered distinct. Perhaps there is something to be learned regarding the pace and importance of technology transfer in vitalizing technology in one's own backyard.
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 Pam Vandiver examining a modern replica by British potter and historian Alan Caiger-Smith of the Islamic technology of lusterware production that involves controlling regions of precipitation of metallic Ag for yellow or metallic Cu for red. |
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| We hope you will join us for the banquet. | ||
| UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES OF ANCIENT CERAMICS - APPLICATION OF MODERN MATERIALS SCIENCE Pamela Vandiver, Senior Research Scientist in Ceramics Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education vandiverp@scmre.si.edu http://www.si.edu/scmre/ To understand how the basis of the appearance of art objects resides in microstructure development, we will examine the three technologies of liquid-liquid phase separation in Chinese jun, guan and ru glazes of the Song dynasty, the precipitated silver and copper particles that gave Islamic glazes and glasses their meaning and value as brilliant imitators of golden metal vessels, and the 17th century gold ruby reds developed as prestige objects for European court usage. To understand the relationship of a property like strength to high temperature firing processes, we will investigate a Chinese technology begun in the Shang dynasty at about 1600 B.C.E. This technology has been continued to the present and is based on the use of water for the hydrogen reduction of pottery, roof tiles, bricks and even the terracotta warriors and horses of Qin She Huang Di's mausoleum. Lastly, we will examine some ancient craft technologies from the Silk Road that are being researched so that they can be revived and taught as intangible cultural properties and be put to service in the preservation of the Bamiyam Buddhas in Afghanistan and the glazed tile monuments of Samarkand and other ancient cities in Uzbekistan. |
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| Two junware bowls of the same composition: the duller one was overfired (top left), and the brighter blue one was correctly fired to produce the opalescence that is due to liquid-liquid phase separation and that gives junware its high value as a work of art (bottom left). The third bowl gives a closer view of the lusterware (right). |  |
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For more information, or to be added to
our e-mail announcements list, contact: Conference Coordinator, ICE-2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room 13-3118 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA ice-2003@mit.edu
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