Gold cultural heritage objects: a review of studies of provenance and manufacturing technologies

Abstract

An overview of the use of the elemental composition of gold in the study of manufacturing technologies for objects as well as of the provenance of the metal is given. Depending on the objects, techniques based either on atomic physics or on nuclear physics and mass spectrometry are required to answer the questions surrounding the process of metalworking in the past. Several archaeological examples covering different periods of time and involving diverse analytical techniques are presented here. With those examples we illustrate the main research questions on precious objects and coins and show how far the elemental analysis of the objects can reveal the way they were made and provide information on the origin of the gold.

Dacian bracelets and Transylvanian gold: ancient history and modern analyses

“…Most likely, the Sn originates from the first melting in reducing atmosphere of alluvial gold, in which cassiterite (SnO 2 ) grains were present (Dube, 2006;Guerra and Calligaro, 2003).…”

Cytosine-functionalized polyurethane foam and its use as a sorbent for the determination of gold in geological samples

“…The amount of the metal ions extracted with the foam was calculated by difference. The amount of Au(III) retained at equilibrium (capacity of adsorbent, Q e , mg g À1 ) on the tested solid adsorbent was calculated using eqn (1).…”

“…1 The demand for gold and other noble metals is growing with modernization. However, gold occurs in very low concentrations in the Earth's crust.…”

Targeting Ion Beam Analysis techniques for gold artefacts

“…The irradiation of a pure Ge target with protons (and not with electrons, in order to avoid any contribution of Bremtrahlung) produces X-rays of 9.89 and 10.98 keV, which are sufficient to extract K-shell electrons from Zn but not the L-shell of gold (see Figure 3). The same arrangement, using As as primary target, has been used by the team of M. Guerra to detect traces of Pt in gold (Guerra and Calligaro, 2003;2004). The experimental assembly is shown in Figure 6.…”