Neutron and synchrotron radiation studies of archaeological objects

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the neutron and synchrotron radiation studies of archaeological objects. Time-of-flight neutron and synchrotron X-ray diffraction are used for the fingerprint determinations and quantitative mineral phase analysis of archaeological objects. Both neutron and X-ray diffraction techniques have their advantages and drawbacks when used in archaeological research. Neutron diffraction allows non-destructive analysis of complete and unprepared objects. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction can be used for fast and high-resolution data collection on small amounts of powder samples, surfaces, or thin sections. This chapter concentrates on the introduction of the white-beam neutron diffraction technique applied on archaeological pottery. X-ray diffraction results from both laboratory and synchrotron sources are given for comparison. X-ray and neutron diffraction are well known experimental methods for investigating minerals, or other inorganic and organic materials wherever their crystal structures are the matter of interest in the wide field of material science and industrial applications. The knowledge of the crystal structure of a material or the abundance of different known phases in a multi-phase mixture of minerals are not only fundamental for the understanding of the physical and chemical properties of the material, but can also help to fingerprint the origin of objects of archaeological interest. It concludes that neutron and SR X-ray radiation is capable of providing high quality diffraction fingerprints of archaeological ceramics.