Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
- 2017 (3) (entfernen)
Dokumenttyp
- Zeitschriftenartikel (2)
- Sonstiges (1)
Sprache
- Englisch (3)
Schlagworte
- Gold (2)
- Archeometry (1)
- BESSY (1)
- Color X-ray camera (1)
- Inca (1)
- Polycapillary optics (1)
- Synchrotron (1)
- XRF (1)
- pXRF (1)
Fourteen hollow and one cast anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines produced in Incan times for ritual offerings from the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin were selected to investigate the technologies and alloys used for their fabrication with portable optical microscopy and non-destructive XRF elemental analysis. This group of gold and silver figurines includes typical specimens of the Inca production, such as the four silver figurines from the Island Coati in Lake Titicaca and the two gold figurines from Pachacamac, as well as specimens that are seldom present in collections, which makes them atypical. In addition to the tall figurines with atypical hair or standing pose, one bicolour figurine half silver, half gold) and another with coloured inlays were included in this study for comparison. The large majority of the silver specimens are made from very high quality alloys and the gold figurines are made from alloys containing low copper contents and silver ranging from 30wt% to 52wt%.
In a color X-ray camera spatial resolution is achieved by means of a polycapillary optic conducting X-ray photons from small regions on a sample to distinct energy dispersive pixels on a CCD matrix. At present, the resolution limit of color X-ray camera systems can go down to several microns and is mainly restricted by Pixel dimensions. The recent development of an efficient subpixel resolution algorithm allows a release from pixel size, limiting the resolution only to the quality of theoptics. In this work polycapillary properties that influence the spatial resolution are systematized and assessed both theoretically and experimentally. It is demonstrated that with the current technological Level reaching one micron resolution is challenging, but possible.
The gold finds from Bernstorf, in the Freising district of Bavaria, were discovered in 1998, in the area of a Bronze Age settlement. First analyses with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) revealed gold of an unusually high purity grade, which was explained by the use of cementation techniques. A newer analysis with laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) indicated an even higher purity. The analytical results were the starting point of an ongoing discussion. In this study, we re-analysed 11 gold samples with Synchrotron radiation–induced X-ray fluorescence at the BAMline at BESSY. In a thorough analysis, different excitation and detection conditions were applied to confirm or disprove the previous results. It was shown that the purity of the gold from the specimen is higher than 99.9%. The main impurities are silver in a range between 20 and 200 μg/g and copper between 1 and 10 μg/g. The results are in very good agreement with the LA–ICP–MS measurements and provide basic information for discussions about provenance, processing techniques or considerations of authenticity.