Evaluation of Painted Pottery from the Mesa Verde Region Using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)

Abstract

For decades archaeologists have struggled with the problem of accurately determining organic and mineral-based paints in

Proceedings of the International Conference LACONA XI

“…Seames [31] and Buhre et al [32] have shown that the PM1 ultra fine fraction of fly-ashes -measuring less than 1 µm diameter -represents less than 1 wt % of the total amount of ashes generated by the coal combustion. Yet the TEM analysis we conducted reveals the presence of a large amount of nano-sized fly-ashes covering the ablated gypsum particles.…”

“…Statements indicating a low degree of changes due to LA-ICP-MS analysis include such wording as quasi-destruction-free [113], virtually non-destructive [19,32,54,76,93] or relatively/almost non-destructive [12, 29, 144 -146]. Other papers [35, 77, 125, 147 -150] state that LA-ICP-MS as a micro-destructive method provides multielemental information with minimal sample damage and should rather be understood as an attempt to present the method in the best light, not as a precise term describing effects of ablation.…”

“…While much research has focused on copper alloys [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] and gilt surfaces [6,[14][15][16][17], equally significant work has sought to characterize the cleaning of iron alloys by lasers [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32].…”

Role of laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry in cultural heritage research: A review

“…If contamination is observed on the external surface, samples are simply cleansed with deionized water [71] or dilute nitric acid [46,72] or the dirt easily removed by laser pre-ablation, although environmental and differential diagenesis effects on sherds are considered negligible on grouping of samples. Some authors cut small pieces (cm 2 s) of glazes from the sherds and fix the fresh surface to a glass slide [73] or on microscope slides [74], others embedded the samples in polished cross sections [75].…”

A moderate microsampling in Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry analysis of cultural heritage objects: a review

“…Statements indicating a low degree of changes due to LA-ICP-MS analysis include such wording as quasi-destruction-free [113], virtually non-destructive [19,32,54,76,93] or relatively/almost non-destructive [12, 29, 144 -146]. Other papers [35, 77, 125, 147 -150] state that LA-ICP-MS as a micro-destructive method provides multielemental information with minimal sample damage and should rather be understood as an attempt to present the method in the best light, not as a precise term describing effects of ablation.…”