Abstract

Tracing gold back to its source by means of the elemental composition of objects contributes to the knowledge of the trade routes used in the past. The analysis of a large number of ancient gold objects showed that in most cases only a few elements are useful to characterize the metal. Quantitative analysis of these elements was performed on a set of gold samples with different techniques: inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in liquid mode and with laser ablation, 12 MeV proton activation analysis, fast neutron activation analysis, particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and PIXE induced X-ray fluorescence. The aim of this paper is to present a discussion on the possibilities and limitations of these techniques to characterize gold.

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