Beyond the Great Wall: Gold of the Silk Roads and the First Empire of the Steppes

Abstract

Fingerprinting ancient gold work requires the use of nondestructive techniques with high spatial resolution (down to 25 μm) and good detection limits (micrograms per gram level). In this work experimental setups and protocols for synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence (SRXRF) at the BAMline of the Berlin electron storage ring company for synchrotron radiation (BESSY) in Berlin for the measurement of characteristic trace elements of gold are compared considering the difficulties, shown in previous works, connected to the quantification of Pt. The best experimental conditions and calculation methods were achieved by using an excitation energy of 11.58 keV, a silicon drift chamber detector (SDD) detector, and pure element reference standards. A detection limit of 3 μg/g has been reached. This newly developed method was successfully applied to provenancing the Xiongnu gold from the Gol Mod necropolis, excavated under the aegis of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The composition of the base alloys and the presence of Pt and Sn showed that, contrary to what is expected, the gold foils from the first powerful empire of the steppes along the Great Wall were produced with alluvial gold from local placer deposits located in Zaamar, Boroo, and in the Selenga River.