Precious Metals and Provenance Enquiries using LA-ICP-MS

Role of laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry in cultural heritage research: A review

“…The knowledge of the fineness of ancient coins improves the understanding of technology, trade routes, foreign policy and communication in the past. In Gondonneau et al [106] and Guerra et al [94] the first study coupling PAA and LA-ICP-MS of the manufacture technologies and of the provenance of the gold ores was described. Several Muslim coinages were investigated with the aim to get information about the changes in gold ore supplies between the 8th and the 11th century in Africa.…”

“…Limits of detection up to two orders of magnitude lower compared with, e.g. to Proton Activation Analysis (PAA) [92][93][94][95][96] allowed to determine trace elements, whose analysis is decisive for provenance purposes, as an example in ancient gold coins. As a result, Pd, Pt and Rh enabled to discriminate Russian from Ottoman gold coins [92] while Sn, Sb and Pt allowed the separation of South American gold coins in three main groups: the Mexican coins, enriched in Sb, the Peruvian and Chilean ones with high Sn, and the Colombian coins that seemed to undergo an evolution in the raw material, from gold with high content of Pt to another with low content of this metal [93].…”

Wands in the hand! Or Potter’s powers

“…Concerning the provenance of gold, much work has been carried out in this direction and good results produced by characterising trace element patterns (Guerra et al, 1999). he most frequently used techniques are inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and proton activation analysis.…”

Trace element fingerprinting of ancient Chinese gold with femtosecond laser ablation-inductively coupled mass spectrometry

“…In contrast, trace amounts of palladium (Pd) and platinum (Pt) tend to be homogeneously distributed in gold; these elements also have high melting and boiling point temperatures, so that they should be unaffected by the relatively low temperatures achieved in ancient gold refining and working techniques (Craddock, 1995;Ramage and Craddock, 2000). Based on these assumptions, previous researchers have maintained that trace concentrations of platinum and/or palladium, and their ratio, remain characteristic of the source gold in artifacts (Gondonneau et al, 1996;Hall et al, 1998;Guerra et al, 1999;Watling et al, 1999;Guerra, 2004a,b,c;Guerra et al, 2005).…”

“…Actual sourcing or provenancing of gold in relation to manufactured art objects remains problematic, however, due to lack of an extensive database of elemental profiles in gold ores, natural variation in ore geology, and difficulties with accurate analysis of trace elements (Jones, 1983;Guerra et al, 1999;Ixer, 1999;Watling et al, 1999;Guerra, 2004a,c). Moreover, the inevitable trading, looting and re-melting of precious metal objects makes such a task difficult, if not impossible.…”