“…XRD is undoubtedly a very reliable tool for analysis of the artist pigments (Pomies et al , 1998; Ortega et al , 2001; Rampazzi et al , 2002; Salvado et al , 2002), and also for identification of mineralogical components of archaeological samples like ceramics (Ramos et al , 2002; Eiland and Williams, 2001) and mortars (Benedetti et al , 2004). For example, XRD is indispensable in the identification of very rare pigments (Richter et al , 2001; Corbeil et al , 2002), minerals composed of widespread elements, such as bole grounds (earthy pigments of yellow or red color) (Grygar et al , 2003; Hradil et al , 2003), and pigments that are very variable in mineralogical composition and very similar in elemental composition, such as Cu pigments (Salvado et al , 2002). At present, the only alternative analytical micromethod to phase analysis is vibrational spectroscopy, either Raman (Edwards et al , 1997; Daniilia et al , 2002; Bruni et al , 2002) or IR spectroscopy (Rampazzi et al , 2002; Salvado et al , 2002).…”