Neutron-based techniques applied for nondestructive quantitative characterisation of ancient mosaic tesserae

Giulia Marcucci, Antonella Scherillo, Carlo Cazzaniga, Massimiliano Clemenza, Daniela Di Martino

Abstract

The conservation and preservation of cultural heritage need by now non-destructive analytical methods for the characterisation of materials, detection of degradations and authenticity assessment. The interaction properties of neutrons with matter make neutron-based techniques suitable for nondestructive studies of ancient artefacts since they cannot be replaced. A quantitative bulk characterisation of the chemical composition of ancient mosaic tesserae, dating from 2^nd to the 11^th century AD and coming from different geographical areas (Greece, Italy, and Syria) has been conducted through Neutron Resonance Capture Analysis (NRCA) combined with Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). The NAA analysis returns the bulk composition in terms of major, minor and trace elements, while NRCA reveals the presence of particular elements, like antimony, in agreement with NAA results.

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IMEKO-TC4-MetroArchaeo2020-072.pdf

DOI

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IMEKO TC

TC4 - Measurement of Electrical Quantities

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