425
With the help of an innovative mobile laser method, an international group of scientists was able to analyze for the first time samples of famous early Bronze Age jewelry from Troy, Poliochni (an island in Greece) and Ur in Mesopotamia, writes Success in UA.
The results showed that they all originated from the same region and were traded over long distances.
Necklaces, pendants, earrings and necklaces, which were studied in the work, were stored in a museum in Athens. All of them are so valuable that they cannot be transported to the laboratory or conduct any research, they leave visible traces on objects. Because of this, the analysis is difficult, reports cikavosti.com.
The scientists used the mobile technology of a portable laser ablation system to perform the analysis right in the museum. The hole melted in the surface of the gold product by the beam of such a system has a diameter of only 120 μm and has a conical shape. The damage can only be seen with an electron microscope.
In addition to gold, historical jewelry always contains other elements such as silver, copper, zinc, palladium and platinum. Depending on the alloy, a certain chemical profile of the findings can be created and used to draw conclusions, the scientists explain. For example, high concentrations of zinc, palladium, and platinum in jewelry from Troy are a clear indication that the gold used to create the jewelry was washed down the river as gold dust.
The researchers were also able to show that jewelry was produced serially in workshops, and not just as individual items. This confirms, for example, the same amount of platinum and palladium in gold discs in necklaces of the same design found in different places. Archaeologists believe that their work indicates the existence of a developed trade network that covered the entire Mediterranean and extended to the Indus River in Asia.
