Micro-XRF analysis of silver decorations on Archaic helmets from Olympia

摘要

Quantitative micro-X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses were performed on 19 silver decorations of six Archaic bronze helmets from the archaeological site of Olympia, Greece. The principal aim of the study was to investigate technological aspects of the smelting process that influence the composition of Ag, reveal possible elemental correlations and shed light on its source, assigning a likely provenance. The XRF results revealed that all decorations contain high amounts of Ag > 95%. The quantitative determination of several fingerprint minor elements, such as Au, Pb and Bi, provided interesting insights related to the efficiency of the cupellation process, the ore type used for the silver extraction and the geological origin of the ores.