PIXE-PIGE

A selection of Late Bronze Age glass objects from the site of Amarna (Egypt) was analysed for their overall chemical composition, colourants and transition metals associated with the sources of cobalt ore. The objects were analysed by means of Particle Induced X-Ray and Gamma-ray Emission and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry at the IBC, HZDR, Dresden and the New AGLAE facility, C2RMF, Paris. The data was subsequently compared with further measurements obtained by portable X-Ray Fluorescence (and by Laser-Ablation Inductively-Coupled-Plasma Mass-Spectrometry) in order to sound the potential of these non-destructive methods to obtain new insights into the production process of glass from Amarna and its provenancing.

An integrated, multi-analytical approach combining the high sensitivity of SR-mXRF, the light element capability of PIXE/PIGE under a helium flux and the spatial resolution of BSEM + EDS was used to characterize chemical composition and corrosion of glass samples (first to fourth centuries AD) from an important, but scarcely investigated, Roman region of southwest Iberia (southern Portugal). The geochemical trends and associations of major, minor and trace elements were investigated to shed light on production techniques, the provenance of raw materials and decay mechanisms. The results, while confirming a production technique common to Roman glasses throughout the Empire-that is, a silica-soda-lime low-Mg, low-K composition, with glass additives as colouring and/or decolouring agents (Fe, Cu, Mn, Sb)-show at one site high Zr-Ti contents, suggesting a more precise dating for these glasses to the second half of the fourth century. The Ti-Fe-Zr-Nb geochemical correlations in the pristine glass indicate the presence of minerals such as ilmenite, zircon, Ti-rich Fe oxides and columbite in the sands used as raw materials for the glass former: these minerals are typical of granitic-type source rocks. The unusually high K content in the corrosion layers is consistent with burial conditions in K-rich soils derived from the alteration of 2:1 clays in K-bearing rock sequences.

At the European recent Prehistory variscite was a precious gemmological material that appears in scarce megalithic burials of the Atlantic facade, especially at the Iberian peninsula and West France. Here we describe the main results of the mineralogical and geochemical analysis of a great and diverse group of archaeological and geological variscite and turquoise samples from the Iberian peninsula, especially from the Atlantic facade and the SW of Spain. Samples were analysed last years by the use of different analytical techniques as XRD, WDXRF, ICP-MS-LA and PIXE and stereomicroscopy. The geochemical results, obtained especially by PIXE and ICP-MS-LA techniques, on these archaeological samples were discussed in relation to their possible provenance areas, related with the three main geological areas with variscite and turquoise outcrops in the Iberian peninsula: Palazuelo de las Cuevas-San Vicente area, that included other sites as El Bostal and Braganca district in Portugal; Pico...

Archaeometric analysis based on Optical Microscopy, X-Ray Fluorescence and Ion-Beam analysis were used to study a golden funerary belt with an anthropomorphic and zoomorphic iconography. This complex gold and enamel work shows the portraits of a man and a woman, as well as a libation scene, can be dated to the Early Hellenistic period. The data obtained point to a Near Eastern workshop (Babylon) as the place of manufacture, while comparative typology leads us to the Far East (Afghanistan) as the presumable origin of the morphotype. Elemental analysis results raise anew the old debate on the use of cadmium in the solder alloys. Finally, from the iconography we suggest to identify the manly figure with one of the few small format portraits of Alexander the Great.

Abstract. At the European recent Prehistory variscite was a precious gemmological material that appears in scarce megalithic burials of the Atlantic facade, especially at the Iberian peninsula and West France.
Here we describe the main results of the mineralogical and geochemical analysis of a great and diverse group of archaeological and geological variscite and turquoise samples from the Iberian peninsula, especially from the Atlantic facade and the SW of Spain. Samples were analysed last years by the use of different analytical techniques as XRD, WDXRF, ICP-MS-LA and PIXE and stereomicroscopy.
The geochemical results, obtained especially by PIXE and ICP-MS-LA techniques, on these archaeological samples were discussed in relation to their possible provenance areas, related with the three main geological areas with variscite and turquoise outcrops in the Iberian peninsula: Palazuelo de las Cuevas- San Vicente area, that included other sites as El Bostal and Bragança district in Portugal; Pico Centeno mines, Encinasola area, in Huelva province, SW Spain; Gavá mines in Catalonia, NE Spain, and other possible sources in Europe as Pannecé, France.
Geochemical data were subjected to statistical analysis selecting different chemical variables in variscites and turquoises. A relatively good discrimination has been obtained through an interactive geochemical model using specially the Fe-Cr-V relationship, represented by a triangular diagram and the elementary relationships between other chemical elements.
These results show the existence, in Neolithic and Chalcolithic times, of great exchange networks of exotic or prestige lithic products that extended in Western Europe, hundreds and thousands of kilometres away from their source areas.