During that time my teaching of petrography to undergraduate, post-graduate and short courses at Aston, Birmingham, Leicester and the Open Universities has produced a number of published teaching/learning aids

Ore characterization is the main commercial application of ore petrography and is used as an aid to the exploration of metalliferous deposits and the subsequent mineral processing/mineral beneficiation of their ores. The same techniques can be applied to ancient mines and mining.

Ore petrography is the quickest and most accurate method for identifying and characterizing ores, either from ancient mine sites or from small amounts of unconsumed material in slags. Indeed, since mineral species, grain size and mineral intergrowths all form part of petrography, the technique is an essential first step in determining what is an exploitable ore, a potential ore or just a mineral occurrence of little or no economic (or archaeological) interest.

For theoretical aspects of the potential application of ore petrography/'economic geology' in archaeometallurgy and more detailed work on a number of prehistoric mine sites in the British Isles - see Mount Gabriel, Alderley Edge, The Great Orme, Parys Mountain, Gold Mines River and Ross Island.

The combined use of transmitted and reflected light petrography - total petrography - allows for the complete description of any crystalline material. Alongside major and minor element analyses or isotope geochemistry, these techniques become very powerful tools in identifying similar materials or discriminating between them and so have an important role in provenancing of lithics and ceramics.

Oxide minerals and especially the iron titanium oxides within igneous rocks can provide a unique fingerprint in terms of their mineralogy and textural relationships. This fingerprint reflects the total history of the rock from its initial crystallization to its final weathering. In a similar way the oxide and fine-grained silicate assemblages of metamorphic and sedimentary rocks also are 'unique'. The combination of reflected light with transmitted light and major and minor element geochemistry can provide a detailed provenancing tool capable of resolving down to a single lava flow or even to a single outcrop within a rock unit. Therefore with suitable lithics provenancing on the scale of 10-100 metres is possible.

The use of transmitted light petrography for the non-plastic (temper) component of a pot-sherd is a well-established technique for provenancing ceramic raw materials and, to a lesser extent, helping to explain the manufacture of the pot. Use of polished thin sections with their better surface improves the recognition of fine-grained phases (plastic/clay component). Reflected and transmitted light petrography can also give useful information about the manufacturing processes - from clay and temper processing, to the firing temperature, to the presence/absence or type of glaze used.

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