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Investigation of Organic Materials From the ‘Royal’ Burials of X iongnu ( N oin‐Ula, M ongolia) by Srxrf and XAFS Methods
Author(s) -
Trunova V.,
Zvereva V.,
Polosmak N.,
Kochubey D.,
Kriventsov V.,
Kuper K.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
archaeometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-4754
pISSN - 0003-813X
DOI - 10.1111/arcm.12109
Subject(s) - x ray absorption fine structure , copper , octahedron , crystallography , chemistry , absorption (acoustics) , metal , materials science , spectroscopy , analytical chemistry (journal) , mineralogy , metallurgy , environmental chemistry , crystal structure , physics , composite material , quantum mechanics
The burials of famous X iongnu people are a unique source of information about X iongnu culture, due to the variety of organic findings. SRXRF analysis of hair, clay, bones, teeth and woollen cloth was carried out. An anomalously high copper content was observed in all hair samples, whereas the levels of copper in bone and clay were low. To define the hair morphology and the elemental distribution in the hair cross‐section, high‐resolution X ‐ray computed tomography ( HRXCT ) and energy‐dispersive spectroscopy ( EDS ) with scanning electron microscopy ( SEM ) were used. The X ‐ray absorption fine‐structure method ( XAFS ) was applied to determine the local copper environment. The majority of the copper species in the hair and enamel samples are present as Cu 2+ cations in a distorted octahedral (4 + 2) coordination, surrounded by light ligands (oxygen/nitrogen). A similar distorted octahedral coordination is typical for both inorganic mixed oxide/hydroxide C u nanosystems and metal–organic C u complexes (with oxygen/nitrogen).