Neutron activation analysis of archaeological artefacts using the conventional relative method: A realistic approach for analysis of large samples

• Autores: Bedregal, Patricia, Mendoza, Pablo, Cohen, Isaac, Baltuano, Oscar, Montoya, Eduardo
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2011
• Institución: Instituto Peruano de Energía Nuclear
• Repositorio: IPEN-Institucional
• Lenguaje: inglés
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.ipen.gob.pe:20.500.13054/625
• Enlace del recurso: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13054/625
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Análisis por activación neutrónica; Muestras arqueológicas; Cerámicos; Reactor RP-10; Análisis químico

A new approach for analysis of entire potsherds of archaeological interest by INAA, using the conventional relative method, is described. The analytical method proposed involves, primarily, the preparation of replicates of the original archaeological pottery, with well known chemical composition (standard), destined to be irradiated simultaneously, in a well thermalized external neutron beam of the RP-10 reactor, with the original object (sample). The concentrations determined by irradiation of the entire replicates, in comparison with those obtained from the analysis of the aliquots, show a reasonable agreement; in particular, the percentage recoveries for lanthanum and scandium, with differences ≤ 10 % with respect to the reference. The basic advantage of this proposal is to avoid the need of performing complicated effect corrections when dealing with large samples, due to neutron self shielding, neutron self-thermalization and gamma ray attenuation. In addition, and in contrast with the other methods, the main advantages are the possibility of evaluating the uncertainty of the results and, fundamentally, validating the overall methodology.