摘要:Archaeology has made use of the opportunities provided by science and technical research to solve historical
problems since the first third of the 19th century. Today, the rapidly growing amount of data and the variety of
opportunities for testing archaeological samples has increased the proportion and significance of specialized
interdisciplinary research more strongly than ever before.
In parallel with the emergence of technical opportunities, besides the many tasks, there is an increased
responsibility incumbent on the researchers. The followings are going to review the path made by archaeometric
research so far and practical and ethical issues considered to be the most important in the present situation from
the perspective of an archaeologist examining archaeological metal founds in the daily practice. During
archaeometallurgic research, four basic problems have emerged, requiring attention and possibly urgent
solution, of which the first two are more professional, while the other two are more methodical, ethical issues:
• Over the past decades through the development of new technical tools, methods of measurement are not
consistent with the measured results of previous research data; (Fig. 1)
• Even in today's modern circumstances, there is a clear difference in data obtained by the same devices in
different labs; (Fig. 2)
• there are some studies, which appear to stand only for themselves, where no philosophy can be found in the
background, but the measurements are simply desultory, or at least not perfectly designed;
• Experiments and results of the tests can in many cases not be tracked, and in this way, these are not
available for scientific research, or only in a limited form.
Raising these fundamental issues are particularly important because better designed experiments create an
opportunity for a more efficient operation even under tight financial conditions, and on the other hand, because
it is considered to be a primary objective to avoid unnecessary moving, possibly destroying ancient artifacts. It
would be greatly aided by a wide-spread practice, that a single sample would be taken for subsequent
examination from each metal find even before the restoration, from where it causes the smallest damage, but
gives a good representation of the object, and is suitable for the testing of material structure and composition.
This would possibly avoid further damage resulting from investigation the artworks. A similar register as
already available for archaeological finds, would make it possible to lend these samples, further facilitating
accessibility for the scientific community. Until this optimal situation is reached, however, it should be regarded
as essential to revert the results of measurement to the institute preserving the objects, and data are added to the
register.
Review of the results of previous research clarifies, that data measured by different processes can only be
compared with criticism. While designing new experiments, it is a professional and ethical responsibility to take
into account the metallographic regularities of the raw material and method of preparation of the concrete
object. It would be advisable to develop a uniform sampling protocol, a global register of sam