Reshaping Archaeological Metallurgy: a new role for science in Britain's heritage sector

金属是考古学的核心：它渗透到古代社会，把遥远的地区联系在一起，是经济的中心，并开辟了表达自我的独特途径。然而，目前对铜合金的科学研究是支离破碎的，与英国现代考古的现实脱节。该计划有两个相关的重要任务：在整个国家遗产部门为考古化学建立新的联系，同时，重新想象化学分析可以揭示我们过去的物质。它将提供一个雄心勃勃的分析计划，追踪从公元前50年到公元1066年铁器时代、罗马和中世纪早期世界金属的细微差别流动和影响。这将通过新的化学和概念模型来实现，这些模型超越了来源和物体传记。我将解决阻碍化学成为整个遗产社区的包容性标准工具的结构性障碍。我将建立一个全国性的研究人员网络，并围绕培训、实习和研讨会的层级，为持久的合作和辩论创造真正的机会。这将形成有史以来第一个分析公元一千年英国铜合金文物的国家计划，并解决一些当前的问题。我的研究表明，一个金属单位的化学成分不是静态的，也不完全由地质学决定。相反，它是对材料生命史的微妙和可变的记录。以前在化学记录文件中忽视了人类行为和技术过程中的变化。这些数据直接反映了当今人文科学和考古学的关切。我的新方法捕捉到了过去围绕金属使用的流动、交换、回收和人类选择，因为真人既塑造了技术，也被技术塑造。便携式文物计划记录了惊人的33万件来自铁器时代、罗马和中世纪早期的铜合金发现，所有这些都是由公众报道的。这一成就展示了公民科学的力量和英国冶金历史的真实规模，一个新的档案馆来补充英国博物馆世界领先的收藏品，以及商业考古单位的大量工作。这一堆积如山的历史迫切需要全英国的关注，以提高分析的质量，并解读地区和国家趋势。我们将与30个合作组织合作，在雷丁大学的一个专门实验室里，通过100个主题案例研究，对选定的文物进行10,000份精确分析。这将是对英国所有地区和全部物质文化的系统调查，而不是专注于遗产区块。文物的化学分析通常代价高昂，对遗产管理者来说是边缘化的。该项目的几个合作伙伴抱怨说，他们被留下来翻译结果，几乎没有培训，更令人担忧的是，实验室的专家对此不屑一顾。遗产界各部门之间几乎没有信任或对话。即使是物质文化专家也不知道化学能为他们做些什么，很少有人有机会找到答案。这项计划将通过层层培训和知识交流活动直接解决这些根深蒂固的问题。为了了解我们过去的物质基础，我们必须从根本上改变我们现在讨论它的方式。该计划将改进我们现有的所有工具：化学数据、英国覆盖范围、考古联系、模型、开放获取档案和出版物。但更重要的是，它将汇聚遗产社区内的所有声音，并将科学置于我们社会辩论的核心。未被发现的公元第一个千年提供的机会和未来领袖奖学金的力量，为英国考古景观提供了持久和关键的变化。

Metal is at the heart of archaeology: it permeated ancient societies, drew together far-flung regions, was central to economies, and opened unique avenues for self-expression. However, the scientific study of copper-alloy is currently fractured and cut off from the realities of modern archaeology in the UK. This programme has two important, related missions: to create new connections across the national heritage sector for archaeological chemistry, and at the same time, to reimagine what chemical analysis can reveal about our material past. It will deliver an ambitious analysis programme, tracing the nuanced flow and impact of metal around the Iron Age, Roman and Early Medieval world, from 50 BC to AD 1066. This will be delivered by new chemical and conceptual models, which move beyond provenance and object biographies. I will tackle the structural barriers that have stopped chemistry becoming an inclusive, standard tool across the heritage community. I will establish a national network of researchers and create real opportunities for lasting collaboration and debate, based around tiers of training, internships and workshops. This will form the first ever national programme for the analysis of first millennium AD British copper-alloy artefacts and address a number of current problems.My research has shown that the chemistry of a unit of metal is not static or solely determined by geology. Instead, it is a subtle and mutable record of the life history of the material. Previously overlooked shifts within the chemical record document human behaviour and technological processes. The data directly speaks to the concerns of the humanities and archaeology today. My new approach captures the flow, exchange, recycling, and human choices surrounding the use of metal in the past, as real people both shaped and were shaped by technology.The Portable Antiquities Scheme has recorded a staggering 330,000 copper alloy finds from the Iron Age, Roman, and Early Medieval periods, all reported by the general public. This achievement shows the power of citizen science and the true scale of the UK's metallurgical past, a new archive to complement the world-leading collections of Britain's museums and the huge volume of work by commercial archaeology units. This mountain of history urgently requires UK-wide attention, to improve the quality of analyses and to interpret regional and national trends. We will work with 30 partner organisations to produce 10,000 precise analyses of selected artefacts, across 100 themed case studies, in a dedicated laboratory at the University of Reading. Rather than focus on pockets of heritage, this will be a systematic investigation of all British regions, and the full array of material culture.The chemical analysis of artefacts is often expensive and marginalising for heritage managers. Several partners on this project have complained of being left to translate results with little training, or more worryingly, being ignored by specialists in laboratories. There is little trust or dialogue between sectors of the heritage community. Even material culture specialists do not know what chemistry can do for them, with few having the opportunity to find out. This programme will directly tackle these engrained problems through tiers of training and knowledge exchange events.In order to understand our material past, we have to fundamentally change the way we discuss it in the present. This programme will improve all the tools that we have available: the chemical data, UK coverage, archaeological connections, models, open access archives and publications. But more importantly it will bring together all voices within the heritage community and place science at the heart of our social debates. The opportunity offered by the undiscovered first millennium AD and the power of the Future Leaders Fellowships, provide the leverage to deliver lasting and crucial change to the British archaeological landscape.