TY - JOUR A1 - Radtke, Martin A1 - Reiche, I. A1 - Reinholz, Uwe A1 - Riesemeier, Heinrich A1 - Guerra, M.F. T1 - Beyond the Great Wall: Gold of the silk roads and the first empire of the Steppes N2 - Fingerprinting ancient gold work requires the use of nondestructive techniques with high spatial resolution (down to 25 µm) and good detection limits (micrograms per gram level). In this work experimental setups and protocols for synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence (SRXRF) at the BAMline of the Berlin electron storage ring company for synchrotron radiation (BESSY) in Berlin for the measurement of characteristic trace elements of gold are compared considering the difficulties, shown in previous works, connected to the quantification of Pt. The best experimental conditions and calculation methods were achieved by using an excitation energy of 11.58 keV, a silicon drift chamber detector (SDD) detector, and pure element reference standards. A detection limit of 3 µg/g has been reached. This newly developed method was successfully applied to provenancing the Xiongnu gold from the Gol Mod necropolis, excavated under the aegis of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The composition of the base alloys and the presence of Pt and Sn showed that, contrary to what is expected, the gold foils from the first powerful empire of the steppes along the Great Wall were produced with alluvial gold from local placer deposits located in Zaamar, Boroo, and in the Selenga River. KW - Synchrotron radiation KW - X-ray fluorescence KW - Limit of detection KW - Platinum KW - Silicon drift detector KW - SR-microXRF KW - Elemental imaging KW - Gold PY - 2013 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/ac3025416 SN - 0003-2700 SN - 1520-6882 VL - 85 IS - 3 SP - 1650 EP - 1656 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-30224 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Radtke, Martin A1 - Buzanich, Günter A1 - de Oliveira Guilherme Buzanich, Ana A1 - Reinholz, Uwe A1 - Riesemeier, Heinrich A1 - Scharf, O. A1 - Scholz, Philipp A1 - Guerra, M.F. T1 - Double Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (D2XRF) based on an Energy Dispersive pnCCD detector for the detection of platinum in gold N2 - With the aim of improving limits of detection (LOD) of trace elements in a matrix with adjacent fluorescence energies, a simple double dispersive X-ray fluorescence detection system (D2XRF) was constructed to operate at the beamlines BAMline and the mySpot @ BESSY II. This system is based on the combination of a crystal analyzer with an energy resolving single photon counting pnCCD. Without further collimators, the efficient suppression of the background by the pnCCD and the good energy resolution of the crystal results in improved LOD. In first order reflections, an energy resolution of 13 eV for Cu Kα was reached, and an energy range of 1 keV was covered in one shot. This new system was applied to the detection of platinum (Pt) in gold leaves with a LOD of 0.9 mg/kg, which is the lowest attained by totally non-destructive methods nowadays. The presence of Pt in gilded objects from Abydos and Byzantine mosaics provides vital information, as it indicates the alluvial origin of the gold for these examples. KW - Platinum Wavelength dispersive D2XRF KW - Gold Synchrotron XRF PY - 2016 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2015.10.039 VL - 125 SP - 56 EP - 61 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-35777 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Guerra, M.F. A1 - Neri, E. A1 - Radtke, Martin T1 - Gold leaf tesserae: tracing the origins of gold using synchrotron-based techniques N2 - To gain insight into the possible origin of the gold used in the production of tesserae containing gold leaf less than 0.5 μm thick placed between two layers of glass, we propose a non-destructive synchrotron radiation (SR) XRF protocol based on sequential analysis under optimised analytical conditions. Using this protocol, trace element analysis is achieved with detection limits of 1–6 mg/kg. As Pt and Au have adjacent fluorescence energies, we tested the most challenging situation, when Pt is present in very low concentrations in gold. Data obtained by double-dispersive XRF (D2XRF) and μXRF for fourth–ninth-century mosaics decorating nine Eastern and Western religious buildings show that the Eastern and Western tesserae are made from different alloys. However, these alloys are identical to those used to make gold leaf for gilding, because plastic deformation requires the use of gold alloys with high ductility and malleability. Although trace element composition of gold used in the concerned period is only available for coins, by comparing the amounts of Pt contained in the tesserae and in the coins we show that Roman tesserae are made from Roman gold, as described in the documentary sources. We observe for the Byzantine period the use of a Byzantine gold and of gold supposedly from different stages of recycling, and we suggest the use of Umayyad and Abbasid gold for the production of Islamic tesserae. KW - Gold KW - XRF KW - Synchrotron KW - BAMline KW - D2XRF KW - Tesserae PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-03638-y SN - 2190-5444 VL - 138 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 15 AN - OPUS4-57208 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -