Authors: Donais, Mary Kate; Wojtas, Sara; Desmond, Anthony; Duncan, Bradley; George, David B.

Source: Applied Spectroscopy, Volume 66, Issue 9, Pages 240A-253A and 987-1090 (September 2012) , pp. 1005-1012(8)

Publisher: Society for Applied Spectroscopy

Abstract:

Portable X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry was used to collect elemental data for in situ hypocaust tiles and floors at an archaeological excavation site near Orvieto, Italy. Data obtained from 2009 to 2011 using three different XRF instruments are compared. Both quantitative results and spectral data were utilized for graphical and chemometric evaluation of the samples' elemental compositions. Despite the different instrumental conditions, changes in data collection protocols, and various data evaluation procedures used with each instrument, conclusions about the archaeological relationships among the tiles remained the same across the three-year study. Utilization of fused data did provide some improvements in differentiation of the materials but at the cost of significantly increased analysis times. The robustness of portable XRF instruments for differentiation of in situ archaeological samples is clearly demonstrated.

Keywords: X-ray fluorescence spectrometry; XRF; Principal component analysis; PCA; Hypocaust; Tiles; Archaeometry; Conservation; Archaeology

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1366/12-06616

Affiliations: 1: Saint Anselm College, Department of Chemistry, 100 Saint Anselm Drive, Manchester, NH 03102, USA

Publication date: 2012-09-01

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