{ SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1}Fellow Researchers:

I am at last on the final stages of my paper on solarized purple (or amethyst)
glass.  However, I have run into one small glitch, and I hope you may be able
to help me.  Although everyone in the past was looking for a single date for
the adoption of manganese as a decoloring agent for glass (and its subsequent
change to purple color when exposed to sunlight), preliminary evidence
indicates that makers of different types of bottles (e.g. food, medicine, drug
store, soft drink, beer, milk, etc.) began using the chemical at different times.

What I need now is data.  While I have been able to amass what is available
from the collectors’ sources along with published archaeological sources,
there are still major gaps in the data.

I request therefore, that you help me by making available data from your past
analyses and excavations.  If glass color and any kind of description (e.g. size,
shape) was entered into a database, it may help.  I can access virtually any
form of computerized database (e.g. Paradox, Access, Dbase II, II, or IV) or
spreadsheet (e.g Lotus, Excell, Quatropro).  I will also be delighted with
printed databases.  The more data I can amass, the better sample I will have to
work with, and the better results I (and we) can expect.  The article has been
tentatively accepted by Historical Archaeology pending this and one other
slight change that remain to be completed.

Please help if you have anything to offer.  If in doubt, please send the
database, and I will check it out.  I would much rather end up with data I do
not need than take a chance on missing something that may provide a key.

If you send database(s) as attachments, please make sure you have sent the
information to my return rather than to the entire list.  I have just hit return in
the past and broadcast information that was intended to be private to everyone
(as have others).

Please e-mail me with any questions.

Thanks,

Bill
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Bill Lockhart
New Mexico State University
Alamogordo, NM
(505) 439-3732