05-07-2007, 07:04 PM
Quote:I'm just curious: does anyone actually have any provable evidence that Roman stuff was ever actually coated in tin, or is the common use of 'tinned' is simply a misnomer like the use of 'bronze' for any copper alloy is?
There are published analyses that prove the use of tinning (dipping in a molten tin alloy) on items (there are references in B&C2 IIRC but I can't check at the moment). What confuses the issue is that silvering (the application of thin silver foil) was often secured using a lead/tin solder with a very similar composition to the coating used in tinning... further complicated by the fact that some items (the saddle plates from Castleford spring to mind) were both tinned and silvered (silvered over the visible surfaces, but tinned beneath the separately attached bosses)!
Tinning tends to be pre-Flavian, silvering Flavian and later, but that is a rule of thumb and not written in blood... or molten tin.
Mike Bishop
