Folks,

As this deals with bronze age issues, thought it'd be worth cross-posting
fromIrArch.

Its already been noted that this is more a powerful analysis technique than a
dating
technique. The value it offers is nonetheless worth attention, I think.

Might be worth hearing what people think of how this technique might assist
researchers in Ireland's BA metallurgical artefects...

Thanks, Eoin, for the info. 8-)

MAQQI

____________________________

----- Original Message -----
From: Eoin C. Bairéad <ebairead@...>
To: <Irish-Archaeology@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 1:37 PM
Subject: [IrArch] new dating techniques


> Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 13:55:29 -0400 (EDT)
> From: AIP listserver <physnews@...>
> To: physnews-mailing@...
> Subject: update.554
>
> PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE
> The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
> Number 554 August 30, 2001 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein, and James
Riordon
>
>
> BRONZE AGE ARTIFACTS, physical links between us and people alive 3000 years
ago,
have long been closely examined with physics- based instruments such as
> x-ray crystallography and mass spectrometry.
>
> Now scrutiny of microchemical surface properties of such ancient bronze in
some
respects surpasses the diagnostic information gained by previous bulk-phase
> studies. Ernesto Paparazzo of the Instituto di Stuttura della Materia in
Rome, and
his colleagues at the Pacific Northwest National Lab and Oxford, have looked at
an
> early-first-millennium BCE belt from Syria with scanning auger microscopy
(SAM), a
process in which specific elements in a material can be identified when
electrons
> with characteristic energies are knocked out of atoms by an incoming electron
beam.
Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin---generally a mixture of about 85% copper
> and 10% tin, with minor amounts of other metals being also possible (e.g.,
zinc,
lead, etc.).
>
> Metals put back into the earth naturally rust but unequally, leading in the
case
of bronze to "decuprification," that is, the disproportionate detachment of
copper
atoms
> from the bronze. With their SAM device, the researchers have studied this
process, and have characterized the microchemistry of the bronze at a level of
spatial
> resolution as good as 15 nm, the best yet achieved for the analytical study of
an
archeomaterial.
>
> They can inventory the invasion of silicates into the alloy from surrounding
soil
during the burial phase and even spot alloy inhomogeneities introduced by the
smith
> during the manufacturing phase.
>
> (Paparazzo et al., Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, July/Aug 2001;
39-06-4993-4153, paparazzo@...)
>
>
>
>
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