glazed bricks

This issue comprises an article presenting the outputs of a multi-disciplinary collaboration of scholars from the Departments of Egypt and Sudan, Middle East and Conservation at the British Museum. It combines research into, and conservation of, a group of glazed tiles found at the Assyrian city of Nimrud, which depict military scenes in Egypt. The renewed study of these long-known objects with, as presented here, the first detailed drawings and photographs of all the surviving fragments, in addition to newly identified and discovered fragments, enables the authors to thoroughly reassess the discovery, production and narrative content of the tiles in relation to other known later-Sargonid glazed material and artwork. It demonstrates how the close study of objects and archives, even seemingly well-published material, can yield significant results in understanding key issues, in this case the development of architecture and Egyptian influence on Assyrian art.

Achaemenid glazed bricks of archaeological excavation of Tall-e-Ajori in Persepolis city were studied by multiple instrumental analysis methods  such as XRF, XRD, SEM-EDS, ICP and Optical microscopy to identify the compositional features of glaze and brick body. Glaze samples are apparently white and yellow  and this phenomenon are caused by the deterioration processes in burial environment, hence optical microscopic studies on the glaze layer determined blue areas on the white substrate and, high sensitivity quantitative analysis detected copper and cobalt as the producer of blue color ions, and Sb and Pb as the producer of yellow color ions. Due to instability of glaze chromofore elements such as Cu and Sb in temperatures higher than 1000⁰C, the reported elements show that, glazed bricks should be fired less in than 1000⁰C.
The quantitative elemental analysis results are compared with the elemental analysis of Susa glazed samples of Apadana palace.