Analysis of archaeological samples by the internal monostandard method of PGAA

Abstract

Nondestructive determination of major and trace elements within voluminous materials has been demonstrated by prompt y-ray neutron activation analysis 9 Some fragmented pieces of pottery bowls considered to have been produced in the late 18th century were analyzed by a new internal monostandard method, and noticeable differences of the elemental contents and significant correlations of the elemental distributions were observed among the samples 9 The possibility of identification of producing areas of unearthened material is demonstrated by the analytical results and the applicability of this method to the investigation of precious samples in a completely nondestructive way is verified in practice 9

Large Sample Neutron Activation Analysis: Developments and Perspectives

“…The GRR-1 gamma counting system used for LSNAA is shown in Figure 2. Other examples include provenance studies of Brazilian Tupi-Guarani tradition pottery [3] and Peruvian ceramics [12], analysis of large and non-standard geometry archaeological samples [24], compositional studies on ancient pottery samples obtained from Buddhist sites of Andhra Pradesh in India [25] as well as authenticity identification of intact ancient Chinese porcelain ware [4].…”

Towards a methodology for bulk sample neutron activation analysis

“…PGNAA is used for analysing large solid samples, including irregularly shaped meteorite samples [12,13]. Archaeological objects, such as bronzes, were analysed by this method [14].…”

Completely non-destructive elemental analysis of bulky samples by PGAA

“…For details, see Ref. [3]. Similarly to PGAA, the internal monostandard method using the following equation was used for INAA to prevent the effect of absorption of u rays within the samples.…”

“…Furthermore, another new method that is essentially a combination of PGAA and INAA by a single neutron irradiation, which we named NBAA (neutron beam activation analysis), was proposed more recently [2]. As examples of practical application of NBAA, analysis of archaeological samples, chinawares and bronze mirrors, were reported [2,3]. In this paper NBAA is first briefly explained, and then the effectiveness of the method for solving archaeological problems is demonstrated by showing some of the analytical results of chinawares and bronze mirrors reported previously, and some preliminary results of Japanese ancient earthenware, Sueki ware, observed in the present work.…”