ABSTRACT
Studies of the structure and the weathering of glass or enamels require the use of a wide range of advanced analytical techniques in order to explore their chemical composition and alteration mechanisms. However, these techniques are often expensive, not easily available or quite unsuitable for the study of whole archaeological objects due to their destructive impact. These pieces which are often of great artistic value can therefore only be analyzed using nondestructive analytical methodologies. Indeed, the complex composition and nanostructure of ancient glass pieces, their unstable thermodynamical properties and the fact that they have no crystallographic restrictions or stoichiometric ratios means that a detailed knowledge of properties such as color and durability can only be acquired with advanced techniques (Pollard & Henron 1996). Fortunately, there are a number of non-destructive analytical techniques (i.e. Micro-Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Micro-ATR-FTIR; Raman Microscopy, RM; Scanning Electron Microscopies-Energy dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy, SEM-EDS; etc.), which can provide detailed information about alteration processes or the different methods used in the manufacture of ancient glass (Colomban 2003, Climent-Font et al. 2008, Feller et al. 2010, De Ferri et al. 2012).
