APPLICATIONS OF NUCLEAR MICROPROBES IN AR CHAEOLOGY

Applications of nuclear microprobes in archaeology. We comment upon th e advantages of the nuclear microprobe (mainly mu-PIXE) for the study of materials of archaeological interest (accuracy, sensitivity, rapidi ty) and we discuss the drawbacks of this multielemental method when ma terials containing a great concentration of medium and heavy elements are irradiated (mainly metal artefacts). We illustrate these character istics with the analysis of various objects (papers, bones, clays and ceramics, iron artefacts, coins and jewelry items). We mainly study go ld artefacts which are often well preserved from corrosion and suitabl e to be analysed by ion beam methods in the first microns below the su rface.