Analytical Aspects of Waterlogged Wood in Historical Shipwrecks

Sulfur and iron analyses of marine archaeological wood in shipwrecks from the Baltic Sea and Scandinavian waters

“…A survey of spectroscopic methods useful for examining archaeological wood was recently published (Fors et al, 2011), which contains descriptions of the scanning X-ray fluorescence (XRF), ESCA and S K-edge XANES spectroscopic techniques that were used in the present study for analyzing the distribution and speciation of sulfur-containing groups in wood and sediment samples. For the wood samples S K-edge XANES spectra were collected in fluorescence mode in 1 atm He atmosphere at beamline 6-2, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SSRL, as described previously (Fors et al, 2011).…”

“…For the wood samples S K-edge XANES spectra were collected in fluorescence mode in 1 atm He atmosphere at beamline 6-2, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SSRL, as described previously (Fors et al, 2011). For the sediment samples beamline 9A at the Photon Factory, Tsukuba, Japan, was used equipped with a Si(111) monochromator, a Ni coated mirror for rejection of harmonics and a focusing Rh-mirror.…”

“…For a few samples scanning X-ray spectro-microscopy (SXM) at the S K-edge was performed at ESRF, Grenoble, France, as described previously (Sandström et al, 2005;Fors et al, 2011). Elemental analyses of total sulfur and iron were made by Analytica AB and Mikrokemi AB, Sweden, while wood cores were scanned by Cox Analytical Systems AB, recording sulfur and iron profiles with 0.5 mm resolution by X-ray fluorescence (XRF).…”

“…The amount and distribution of sulfur and iron compounds in the timbers of the museum shipwrecks of the Vasa and the Mary Rose have been analyzed previously and the sulfur speciation was obtained by applying synchrotron-based S K-edge XANES spectroscopy (Sandström et al, 2002(Sandström et al, , 2005Wetherall et al, 2008;Fors et al, 2011;Almkvist and Persson, 2011). In the present study we compare similar analyses of the sulfur and iron content in wood and sediment samples from wreck sites in the Baltic Sea and the Scandinavian west coast by means of S K-edge XANES, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA) and elemental analyses, in a search for effects of different wreck site environments on the characteristics of the contaminants in the wood.…”

The application of X-ray absorption spectroscopy in archaeological conservation: Example of an artefact from Henry VIII warship, the Mary Rose

“…There is an enormous breadth of problems to which the technique has been applied; ranging from the origin of Ancient Greek (5th century BCE) burial vessels [20], to the deterioration of medieval stained glass windows [21], to degradation of historic documents by iron gall ink [22] and to the origin of van Gogh's yellow paint [23]. Artefacts that have been a particular focus for XAS studies are waterlogged archaeological timbers, namely the historic ships the Vasa [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and the Mary Rose [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. It is this latter ship that has been of interest to the current group of authors with a special interest in the 'sulfur problem'.…”