Estudos arqueométricos de cerâmicas arqueológicas por meio da análise por ativação neutrônica e de técnicas analíticas complementares

Abstract

Archaeometry is a multidisciplinary field of study that encompasses the exact sciences and the natural sciences, and uses tools from these areas to study archaeological assets and heritage in general, with the aim of better understanding the history of ancient peoples and preserving cultural heritage. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) is one of the analytical techniques that make up the broad field of exact sciences and is widely used in archaeological studies, especially in the analysis of archaeological ceramics. Like NAA, other nuclear analytical techniques are used to study heritage, either as primary techniques or as complementary techniques for archaeological studies. The objective of this paper is to present a literature review on the use of NAA and other analytical techniques for the study of archaeological assets, showing how nuclear sciences can contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage. The works presented in this article refer to analyses of archaeological ceramics using four analytical techniques: NAA, to determine the elemental chemical composition; X-ray diffractometry (XRD), to determine the mineralogical composition; Mössbauer spectroscopy, to identify and quantify Fe2+ and Fe3+ phases; and Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), for morphological analysis of tempers (additives) that make up the ceramic paste. The NAA results, after treatment with multivariate statistics, indicate whether the ceramics were produced with different clays. The XRD and Mössbauer results infer the temperature ranges and the firing atmosphere of the ceramic firing process. The SEM results indicate the possible types of tempers used in the ceramic paste. Based on the interpretation of these results, together with the results of archaeological analyses, it is possible to have a better understanding of the production techniques and technologies that ancient peoples used to produce those ceramics, and with that, contribute to the recovery of the history and prehistory of those societies.