My analytical specialty is archaeometallurgy , the study of ancient metal working. This can involve a lot of things -- excavation of mines and other ore sources; excavation of smelting and smithing sites; laboratory analysis of the microstructure of metal (see below for an example of how metals can look under the microscope); and elemental analysis that reveals how the metal has been alloyed, that is, deliberately mixed with other elements in such a way that its properties are changed. (Bronze, for instance, is an alloy of copper and tin.)

I'm an archaeologist, though, and my interest is in using the technical data to shed light on cultural practices. The opportunity to work on the Ban Chiang metal is exciting, because of the site's early and sophisticated metallurgy.

My job at the Ban Chiang Project is to curate and document the 639 prehistoric copper-base and iron artifacts, analyze many of them in the laboratory, and gather the results from previous analyses of the metal artifacts and debris. I am writing up the results and cultural implications of these analyses, together with Joyce White, so that they can be included in the second volume of the Thai Archaeology Monograph Series.
 

The development of complex society, with particular reference to prehistoric Europe, archaeometallurgy, warfare, and the interaction of society and technology.
 
 

Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 1995. Dissertation title: Technology and Social Change: the Iron Age and Gallo-Roman Copper-Working Industry at the Titelberg, G.D. Luxembourg, c. 125 B.C.-A.D. 300.

M.S. in Library Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2002.

Guest student at the University of Cologne, Germany, 1984-85.

M.A., Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1980.

B.A., History, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1976.
 

Monographs

Hamilton, E. 1996. Technology and Social Change in Belgic Gaul: Copper-working and the Titelberg, Luxembourg, 125 B.C.-A.D. 300. MASCA Monograph Series, University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Articles

Hamilton, E. 1995. Was There Ever a Roman Conquest? In Different Iron Ages: Studies on the Iron Age in Temperate Europe, edited by J.D. Hill and C. Cumberpatch, pp. 37-44.  BAR International Series 602.  British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.

Hamilton, E., C.P. Swann, and S.J. Fleming 1994. Roman Influences on Metalworking at the Titelberg (Luxembourg): Compositional Studies Using PIXE Spectrometry. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 85:856-860.

Hamilton, E. 1991. Metallurgical Analysis and the Bronze Age of Bohemia; or Are Cultural Alloys Real? Archaeomaterials 5:75-89.

 Ehrenreich, Robert, Elizabeth Hamilton, and Samuel Nash
2005            A re-assessment of Merovingian ironwork. Journal of Metals 57 (8):51-55.

Hamilton, Elizabeth
2004            “The four scales of technical analysis, or, how to make archaeometry more interesting,” in Analytical Scale in European Archaeology, edited by J. Matthieu and R. Scott. British Archaeological Reports.

2003  “The Celts and urbanization: the enduring puzzle of the oppida,” Expedition             45 (1):21-26.

Hals, Iceland, a Viking period iron production site. 1996.

Combe-Chapelle, a Mousterian site in France. 1989.

Abydos, Egypt, a Pharaonic and Greco-Roman period burial complex. 1988.

Valley Forge National Park. 1986.

Rojdi, Gujarat, India, an Harappan town site. 1983-1984.

Landshut, West Germany, the Late Bronze Age village site of Altdorf. 1983.

St Albans, Herts., England, the Norman abbey of St. Albans. 1982.

Kampsville, Illinois, at the Archaic site of Napoleon Hollow. 1980.
 
 

The Thai Archaeometallurgy Project

The Historical Metallurgy Society

The Bronze Age

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