Abstract
Elemental analysis is a fundamental method of analysis on archaeological materials to address their overall composition or identify the source of their geological components, yet having access to instrumentation, its often destructive nature, and the time and cost of analyses have limited the number and/or size of archaeological artifacts tested. The development of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) instruments over the past decade, however, has allowed nondestructive analyses to be conducted in museums around the world, on virtually any size artifact, producing data for up to several hundred samples per day. Major issues have been raised, however, about the sensitivity, precision, and accuracy of these devices, and the limitation of performing surface analysis on potentially heterogeneous objects. The advantages and limitations of pXRF are discussed here regarding archaeological studies of obsidian, ceramics, metals, bone, and painted materials.
PDF Article
More Like This
Cited By
You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.
Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription