Petrography rock was affixed to a microscope slide and then ground so thin that light could be transmitted through mineral grains that otherwise appeared opaque. The position of adjoining grains was not disturbed, thus permitting analysis of rock texture. Thin section petrography became the standard method of rock study. Since textural details contribute greatly to knowledge of the sequence of crystallization of the various mineral constituents in a rock, petrography progressed into petrogenesis and ultimately into petrology. It was in Europe, principally in Germany, that petrography advanced in the last half of the nineteenth century. The macroscopic characters of rocks, those
Ceramic petrography in the prehistoric Aegean. In the USA the approach is less popular, though important contributions have been made in the area of quantitative petrography. Other attempts to extend ceramic petrography include the use of automated image analysis, the palaeontological analysis of microscopic fossils within ceramic thin sections and the combined statistical classification of petrographic and chemical data from artefacts. Thin section archaeological petrography can be applied to a range of other artefact types in addition to ceramics; these include plaster, mortar, mudbricks and lithic implements. Academic papers on ceramic petrography are often published in journals such as Archaeometry, Journal of