NON-DESTRUCTIVE INVESTIGATIONS WITH GUIDED COLD NEUTRONS IN CULTURAL HERITAGE RESEARCH

 

Zsolt Kasztovszky

Institute of Isotope, Chemical Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

H-1525 Budapest, P.O. Box 77 – Hungary

Tel. +36 1 3922539/3143 - Fax. +36 1 3922584

E-mail address: kzsolt@alpha0.iki.kfki.hu

Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) is a powerful multielement method, suitable for non-destructive archaeometric studies. It is based on the detection of prompt- and delayed g -photons, produced in (n,g ) nuclear reaction. In principle, PGAA is suitable to detect all the chemical elements, but with very different sensitivities. In practice, we are able to determine most major and some trace elements quantitatively in various materials. The PGAA laboratory in Budapest is planted on an external horizontal cold neutron beam of the Budapest Research Reactor. Since 1997, we have investigated successfully most types of archaeological materials, including metals (bronze, iron, silver), stones (chipped and polished tools and raw materials), glass and pottery.

Determination of chemical composition can help the archaeologists to identify the provenance of the objects, the possible raw material sources, workshops, etc. In this paper we describe the basic principles of the method and show examples of the archaeological problems which can be investigated. Since in regular conditions PGAA only provides information about the “bulk” composition, it could be necessary to apply other complementary methods. One possible way of improvement is to develop a 3D elemental mapping/imaging method to investigate inhomogeneous archaeological objects.

A new EU project is about to start from 2006 in this research field. The members of this consortium (ANCIENT CHARM) are the following institutions: Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata; Hungarian National Museum; Institute of Isotopes Chemical Research Centre Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn; Universität zu Köln; European Commission – Joint Research Centre Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements; Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University; Technical University Delft and Central Laboratory of the Research Councils.