Nano- And Micro-scale Resolution In Ancient Obsidian Artefact Surfaces: The Impact Of Afm On The Obsidian Hydration Dating By Sims-ss

摘要

The prehistoric tools made by natural glass of obsidian can be dated by the recent method of the secondary ion mass spec-trometry with the surface saturation using the surface saturation approach (SIMS-SS). In its initial tests, the method inhered some limitations mainly derived from surface roughness. Indeed, the surface irregularities i.e. presence of wells.rncracks, pits, crystals and/or crests, induce uncertain errors in the dating procedure. Here, we provide further images of the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) of obsidian surfaces and discuss the impact of AFM results on the SIMS-SS dating, investigating the problematic non-smoothed surfaces.