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Archaeological analysis of Roman glass excavated from Zadar, Croatia, by a newly developed portable XRF spectrometer for glass
Author(s) -
Tantrakarn K.,
Kato N.,
Hokura A.,
Nakai I.,
Fujii Y.,
Gluščević S.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
x‐ray spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.447
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1097-4539
pISSN - 0049-8246
DOI - 10.1002/xrs.1130
Subject(s) - laboratory flask , spectrometer , archaeology , mineralogy , glass tube , materials science , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , composite material , physics , tube (container) , geography , optics , environmental chemistry
A newly developed portable x‐ray fluorescence spectrometer has been evaluated through the onsite and nondestructive analyses of 109 Roman glass artifacts excavated at a Roman cemetery found in Zadar, Croatia. The spectrometer has been designed for on‐site analysis of archaeological glass objects. The instrument consists of an x‐ray tube with a Pd target operated at up to 40 kV, silicon drift detector (SDD) with a polymer window, and an enlargeable vacuum sampling chamber. With this system, quantitative analysis of the light elements such as Na and Mg that are important components of glass, as well as heavy trace elements, was successfully carried out. The obtained results evidenced the use of Natron as fluxing agent with alkali contents of 14–22 wt% Na 2 O, 0.5 wt% MgO and 1.2 wt% Al 2 O 3 . In addition, it was found that the differences in the use of Mn and/or Sb as decolorizing agent in colorless bell‐shaped flasks collected from 10 different localities along the coast of Croatia comparing with the same type flasks excavated from Zadar. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.