Archaeometallurgy

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the themes of metallurgy and metal science, not otherwise covered in the CdS.
The aim of the course is to give students the fundamentals of extractive metallurgy, thermal treatments and metal manufacturing processes of metallic alloys of interest in the field of cultural heritage.
The educational objective of the course is to provide students with the skills necessary to evaluate the choice of the most appropriate analysis techniques for the study of metal artifacts of historical, archaeological and artistic interest.

By the end of this course, students will be able:
to know how metals and alloys were produced and processed in ancient times;
to interpret the phase diagrams and understand the phase transformations in alloys;
to understand how microstructures are originated and how to modify them in order to get the desired properties;
to know the principles of corrosion of metal artifacts in relation to their environment;
to trace the history of the artifact through the compositional, microstructural and mechanical analysis.