"mostly to do with archeology, but sometimes geology or other hard sciences"

And fascinating it has been too SRS, I don't see how renaissance art fits into your criteria though.

Much as it is interesting I consider a separate thread would be the order of the day, that too could then be expanded on with futher contribution of a similar nature.

I have often clicked onto what sounds like an interesting discussion only to find that thread creep has lead the original topic into something far removed from the title.