Unlock the chemical secrets of ancient pottery in this guide for mastering organic residue pottery analysis.
 
Pottery analysis is a crucial component of excavating an archaeological site. Organic residues in pottery are made up of chemicals that absorb into pots over their lifetime. These residues can reveal what people ate, whether different types of vessels were used for different cooking or foodstuffs preparation, and whether “elite” vessels were in use.

Organic residue analysis is a technical specialty that blends an unusual type of instrumental organic chemistry and archaeology. Because it is considered an obscure technique, archaeologists of all degrees of experience tend to struggle with how to apply the technology to archaeological questions and how to sample effectively in the field to answer these questions.

Eleanora A. Reber’s An Archaeologist’s Guide to Organic Residues in Pottery is a user-friendly resource for all archaeologists. Composed of case studies gleaned from Reber’s more than twenty years of archaeological research, this guide covers the range of residues encountered in the field and explains the methods and application of organic residue analysis.

Reber illustrates the useful aspects of residue analysis, such as compound-specific isotope analysis for the identification of traces of maize and marine resources, conifer resins, and the psychoactive alkaloid biomarkers caffeine and nicotine. Special attention is paid to sampling and construction of meaning as well as research questions to help field archaeologists integrate residue analysis seamlessly into their projects

Ceremonial Lithics in Classic Mesoamerica explores how and why ceremonial lithic artifacts were made in ancient Mesoamerica’s Classic period, focusing on their implications for economic and sociopolitical organization. Technological analyses of unique examples are interpreted to understand the processes of lithic production and how chipped stone was ritualized across Mesoamerica.

Investigations of ritualized lithics also draw on iconography, epigraphy, and ethnohistory to understand the meaning of these objects, including the so-called eccentric flints and obsidians of the Maya area and Central Mexico, massive debitage deposits in tomb contexts, and the use of utilitarian objects in ceremonial contexts. In the cases of the largest and most elaborate artifacts (e.g., the effigy flints of Copan, Honduras and the obsidian serpents of Teotihuacan), authors examine what the basic production processes may have been, while cases of blade and debitage deposits focus on how the objects were produced within their social context, in what sequence, and why they may have been chosen for ritual deposition.

Ceremonial Lithics in Classic Mesoamerica is the first book to address from a pan-Mesoamerican perspective how and why these objects were made. While obsidian and flint carried their own respective symbolic meanings, the final form of an artifact and the process of its production also contributed to its identification. Hence, this volume is an essential step toward understanding the ancient meanings imbued in these material objects.
 

Driving Force unfolds the long and colorful history of magnets: how they guided (or misguided) Columbus; mesmerized eighteenth-century Paris but failed to fool Benjamin Franklin; lifted AC power over its rival, DC, despite all the animals, one human among them, executed along the way; led Einstein to the theory of relativity; helped defeat Hitler's U-boats; inspired writers from Plato to Dave Barry. In a way that will delight and instruct even the nonmathematical among us, James Livingston shows us how scientists today are creating magnets and superconductors that can levitate high-speed trains, produce images of our internal organs, steer high-energy particles in giant accelerators, and--last but not least--heat our morning coffee.

From the "new" science of materials to everyday technology, Driving Force makes the workings of magnets a matter of practical wonder. The book will inform and entertain technical and nontechnical readers alike and will give them a clearer sense of the force behind so much of the working world.

Breakdown is fascinating to the scientist and frustrating to the engineer! As well as advancing the scientific and engineering understanding of electrical degradation and breakdown in polymers, this book forms a comprehensive and international review of the state-of-the-art. Topics include: water and electrical treeing; charge transport; 'classical' and filamentary thermal, electromechanical, electronic and partial discharge breakdown models; the stochastic nature of breakdown and statistical characterisation techniques; and engineering considerations for breakdown testing and degradation assessment. The treatment presumes little prior knowledge but develops into an advanced understanding of new concepts such as the fractal-like nature of trees. Although the book is primarily aimed at scientists and engineers practising in the field, a broad introductory section has been included to cater for a wide audience including those new to the subject area. This comprises a description of the nature of the polymers, basic solid-state physics and an introduction to degradation and breakdown.

Electrical steels are used to form the ferromagnetic cores of motors, generators and transformers. This book provides an insight for the electrical design engineer into what properties may be expected from electrical steels and how these properties may best be exploited in machine design.

The skin effect is the tendency of alternating current (AC) to flow primarily near the surface of a conductor, rather than being evenly distributed, and this effect becomes more pronounced as the frequency of the AC increases. This is important because it increases the effective resistance of the conductor, leading to higher power losses and potential overheating. It can impact the design and performance of circuits, transmission lines (or waveguides), and antennas and is thus an important effect to be able to measure and control.

From the first spark of fire to the frontiers of energy, medicine, and space, a pioneering account of the invisible force that connects it all.

Friction, the force that resists motion, is synonymous with difficulty and complication. If you’ve ever replaced tires worn smooth by the road or reached for a can of WD-40 to fix a creaking door hinge, then you know the headache this force can cause.

In this book, Jennifer Vail reveals beneath the difficulty and complication a force as enigmatic and intriguing as it is central to the human story. She traces how, from the moment we first harnessed the power of fire to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the quest to manipulate friction has driven innovation, culture, and even our own evolution. Today, as scientists study friction in the most unexpected of places, they’re learning why some viruses lie dormant for years while others devastate our cells immediately; where elusive dark matter might be found; and how the climate crisis ought finally be addressed. And yet, for all they’ve learned, scientists still haven’t cracked the greatest mystery of all: how to bridge the distinct laws that govern friction at its largest and smallest scales.

Connecting the discoveries of historical luminaries like Newton, da Vinci, and the Wright brothers to the latest breakthroughs in engineering, Friction is a captivating biography of this unsung hero of the physical world.

The essential reference for anyone engaged in the material study of cast bronze sculpture.
 
Since the fourth millennium BCE, bronze has been the preferred medium for some of the most prestigious and sacred works of art. But only through interdisciplinary research can the fabrication of these extraordinary objects be properly investigated, interpreted, and documented. This innovative publication bridges the expertise of myriad art-technological specialists to create a new framework for advancing the understanding of bronze sculpture.
 
Essential reading for curators, conservators, scientists, archaeologists, sculptors, metallurgists, founders, dealers, collectors, and anyone interested in the life cycle of a bronze, this volume explains how to identify the evidence of process steps, metals used, casting defects, and surface work and alterations before moving on to address analytical techniques ranging from visual exams to imaging, material analyses, and dating. The guidelines are accompanied by detailed illustrations, including videos, charts, and animations; a robust vocabulary, ensuring precision across English, German, French, Italian, and Chinese; a diverse selection of case studies; and a comprehensive bibliography.
 
The free online edition of this open-access publication is available at getty.edu/publications/bronze-guidelines/ and includes videos and zoomable illustrations. Also available are free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book.

High speed data converters represent one of the most challenging, important and exciting analog and mixed-signal systems. They are ubiquitous in our modern and highly connected world. Understanding and designing this class of converters require proficiency in analog circuit design, digital design, and signal processing. This book covers high speed data converters from the perspective of a leading high speed ADC designer and architect, and with a strong emphasis on high speed Nyquist A/D converters.

This book provides an introduction to the world of metamaterials and metasurfaces; artificially engineered materials that can control electromagnetic waves in ways not found in nature. These materials exhibit unusual effects with applications ranging from miniaturised antennas to advanced sensors, energy harvesting, and even future communication systems.

Non-destructive testing (NDT) analysis techniques are used in science, technology and medicine to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system, without causing damage or altering the article being inspected. It is a highly valuable technique that can save money and time in product evaluation, troubleshooting, and research. Well known and widely used in industrial applications since the 60s, the NDT market is developing and growing fast. This book focuses on electromagnetic NDT methods and more specifically on the motion induced eddy current testing and evaluation (MIECTE) techniques used for conductive materials via electromagnetic methods, focusing on the Lorentz force eddy current testing (LET) method which was introduced recently. The authors present the modelling and simulation of LET systems as well as the optimal design of the measurement setups. They also show the wide variety of applications of the LET method including defect identification and sigmometry to estimate electrical conductivity of the tested material.

This book reviews the state of the art in the use of organic materals as physical, chemical and biomedical sensors in a variety of application settings.

Self-healing materials are an emerging class of smart materials that are capable of repairing themselves from damage, either spontaneously or under a stimulus such as light, heat, or the application of a solvent. Intended for an audience of researchers in academia and industry, this book addresses a wide range of self-healing materials and processes, with emphasis on their performance in the space environment.

Semiconductor power switches are essential to the operation of power electronic converters and systems. Traditional silicon-based semiconductor power switches have intrinsic physical limits to their performance. Wide Bandgap (WBG) devices deliver higher efficiency, smaller size, and/or lighter weight. Applications in power grid electronics as well as in electromobility are on the rise, but WBG devices also pose new challenges, in particular due to their fast switching speed and the need for protection.

This book comprehensively covers the areas of materials growth, characterisation and descriptions for the new devices in siliconheterostructure material systems. In recent years, the development of powerful epitaxial growth techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), ultra-high vacuum chemical vapour deposition (UHVCVD) and other low temperature epitaxy techniques has given rise to a new area of research of bandgap engineering in silicon-based materials. This has paved the way not only for heterojunction bipolar and field effect transistors, but also for other fascinating novel quantum devices. This book provides an excellent introduction and valuable references for postgraduate students and research scientists.