Polymerisation Degree and Raman Identification of Ancient Glasses used for Jewellery, Ceramics Enamels and Mosaics

TL;DR

This study showcases Raman spectroscopy as an effective method for identifying ancient glasses and enamels, revealing their structural properties and firing technologies across diverse cultural artifacts.

Contribution

It introduces a correlation between Raman spectral features and glass structure, enabling more precise identification of ancient glass and enamel compositions.

Findings

Raman spectral ratios correlate with glass polymerization and firing technology.

Spectral Qn components provide detailed analysis of silicate structures.

Different cultural production technologies can be distinguished using Raman spectroscopy.

Abstract

We demonstrate the utility of Raman spectroscopy as a technique for the identification of ancient glasses and enamel coatings of ceramics. As for any silicate glasses, the addition of network modifiers breaks the Si-O linkages and modifies the degree of polymerisation and hence the relative intensity of the Si-O bending and stretching modes. We demonstrate empirically that the ratio of these envelopes is well correlated to the glass structure and to the used firing technology. Spectral Qn components assigned to isolated and connected SiO4 vibrational units allow more precise analysis. Selected porcelains, faiences, potteries and glasses representative of the different Asian, Islamic and European production technologies were studied. Modern porcelain enamels are used as compositional references.