pXRF at the Museum: Non-Destructive Elemental Composition Analysis of Collection Objects

Summary

Applications for X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry as an analytical tool in anthropologically related disciplines continue to expand. Museum staff are charged with the amazing, yet daunting, task of housing, preserving, researching, and showcasing our most valued cultural treasures, and this versatile tool can help. As a non-destructive technique for investigating elemental-based aspects of material culture, handheld XRFs are an effective analytical option for museum collections. A handheld XRF was used to implement museum studies focusing on the presence of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, and lead associated with pesticides and elemental composition of pigments. Multiple collection methods were employed to identify elemental signatures from portions of non-homogeneous samples including ethnographic objects, paintings, furniture, and figurines. This poster highlights the resulting data sets with attention to semi-quantitative analysis of elements likely associated with poisons, as well as elemental presence/absence related to pigment composition and identification.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16999