. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 302 GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHEOLOGY. remarked that the granitic stones of the fire-places, when they had been subjected to the action of fire, were easily reducible to coarse angular sand, corresponding exactly to that found in the pottery. Mr. Emilien Dumas de Sommieres, (department du Clard.) a much- esteemed geologist, and a great connoisseur in pottery, has observed a very great diversity of materials mixed with the paste of the ancient pot
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 302 GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHEOLOGY. remarked that the granitic stones of the fire-places, when they had been subjected to the action of fire, were easily reducible to coarse angular sand, corresponding exactly to that found in the pottery. Mr. Emilien Dumas de Sommieres, (department du Clard.) a much- esteemed geologist, and a great connoisseur in pottery, has observed a very great diversity of materials mixed with the paste of the ancient pottery. These substances seem to vary according to the fhineralogi- cal character of the region. Thus it is that in the departments of the Gard, Vaucluse, and Bouches-du-Khone, the ancient pottery contains generally little rhomboidal fragments of white spathic carbonate of lime. In Auvergne, in the Vivarais, and even at Agde, near Mont- pellier, where there exist also ancient traces of volcanic eruptions, the place of calcareous spar is supplied in the ancient pottery by volcanic scoria (peperino.) Lastly, in Corsica, a few years since; they made use of amianthus in the manufacture of common pottery, which gave it great toughness and tenacity, and enabled it to resist most effica- ciously the effects of a blow or of irregular dilatation. Amianthus is also found mingled witli the paste of some Chinese vases of common manufacture. It is likewise known that the walls of Babylon and certain constructions of ancient Egypt were built of bricks dried in the sun. In making these bricks they added to the sandy clay which composes them, chopped straw, and even fragments of reeds and other marsh plants, in order to produce greater strength in the mass. Be- sides, this necessity for the addition of straw is well-established by the fifth chapter of Exodus, which alludes to the refusal of the king of Egypt to furnish the Israelites with the straw required for their work. The age of stone, as w
Size: 1823px × 1370px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorsmithsonianinstitutio, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840
