New Synchrotron Radiaton-Based Imaging Techniques and Archaeology

Abstract

The recent emergence of synchrotron radiation-based micro-analytical techniques, like microdiffraction, microfluorescence, micro-XANES, microtomography, X-ray microscopy or IR microspectrometry, has opened extremely valuable new capabilities in the domain of material characterisation. The possibility of collecting selective images at the micrometer resolution is very attractive for looking at very small objects as well as for mapping heterogenous zones for all types of materials. The images are generally obtained in scanning mode, but sometimes also in full-field mode (X-ray microscopy). Also highly appreciated by scientists is the possibility of combining these techniques, for example tomography and fluorescence, or to successively obtain a series of images provided by these complementary techniques. The new radiation synchrotron-based imaging techniques are already exploited in archaeological investigation, for identifying pigments in paintings or ceramics. They could be also very helpful for characterising the microstructure of archeological tissues like hair, skin and bones, and thus provide physiological, pharmaceutical, medical or embalming information. The present paper is mainly dedicated to the archaeological tissues, the capabilities of synchrotron radiation-based techniques for other types of materials described in other papers of this issue.