Portable XRF of archaeological artifacts: Current research, potentials and limitations

Abstract

Portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) serves as an effective, rapid and non-destructive, method for determining the elemental composition of natural and man-made materials, such as ceramic, glaze, glass, obsidian, pigments, paint, and metal artifacts; based on the analysis, the determination of their origin, technological and production issues, comparative studies, and more knowledge in the field of cultural heritage can be aimed at. The wavelengths of the released energy, known as fluorescent X-rays, are detected and measured by spectrograph in the energy dispersive and wavelength manner of detection. Since only the surface of an object is studied, in dimensions that typically range within some millimeters, care needs to be taken that corrosion and decay do not affect the analysis. A world survey of the major applications of PXRF in the analysis of various cultural material types is reported, and the available PXRF setups are described. A review of the results of obsidian characterization and clustering is included, and the advantages, reliability, and limitations are discussed, with particular emphasis on the calibration procedures. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.