The Goodmanham plane: Raman spectroscopic analysis of a Roman ivory artefact

Abstract Raman spectroscopy has been applied to the study of the exceptional ivory stock of an archaeological discovery of great importance for the history of woodworking tools: a virtually complete Roman plane that was found in a late fourth century A.D. context in North Yorkshire, UK, in A.D. 2000. An assessment has been made of the viability of Raman spectroscopy for the identification of ivories from archaeological excavations and comparisons made with similar studies of modern specimens. All of the attributed ivory specimens studied have suffered from deterioration in their burial environment, and severe degradation of their proteinaceous component was observed. In addition, spectral quality was affected through the absorption of fluorescent materials from their environment, and from the presence of emergency conservation procedures undertaken to preserve the integrity of very fragile specimens. The spectra of ivories dating from about 2000 years ago varied considerably because some specimens had experienced an almost complete leaching‐out of collagen, whereas in others, the degraded protein was still substantially identifiable. Generally, however, the protocols used successfully for the identification of modern ivories and for an assignment of their mammalian species were not transferable into archaeological ivory identification and classification because of the collagen degradation and decreased spectral quality. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.