Local and Integral Techniques in Metal Compositional Analysis of Archaeological Objects with Surface Corrosion Layers and Small Sample Quantities

Abstract

The paper presents the difference of three varied methods which have been used to analyze archaeological metals: X-ray fluorescence analysis – XRF (X-ray spectrometer), energy dispersive X-Ray microanalysis – EDAX (electron microscopy), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MS-ICP). Illustrative examples of different measurements are two fragments of sickles from the hoard near the village of Sosnovaya Maza and three plates of horse harness from the treasure from the territory of the Republic of Crimea. The analysis of the results reveals the importance of formulation an individual methodology for analysis and the process of sample preparation for each measured object.

Keywords

• archaeology
• hoard near the village of Sosnovaya Maza
• details of horse equipment
• X-ray fluorescence
• scanning electron microscopy
• mass spectrometry with inductive plasma