PIXE ANALYSIS ON URARTIAN BRONZE ARMORS AND HARNESSES IN THE REZA ABBASI MUSEUM, IRAN

Abstract

Eleven bronze objects in the Reza Abbasi Museum have been analyzed by the ParticleInduced X-Ray Emission (PIXE) technique. The policy of the Reza Abbasi Museum is to house objects rescued from looting or from the antiquities trades, therefore authenticity and period of the objects have been determined by the museum experts. The experts believe that the objects under study, including bronze armors and harnesses, belong to the Urartian period in the first millennium BC and are attributed to the Lurestan province in Central Zagros. The purpose of this work is to characterize and to understand the provenance of them. During the study, besides the major components, including Cu and Sn, trace element that was Fe along with Ti, Zn and Mn were also detected. High amounts of copper and tin and also existence of Fe indicate that Cu and Sn have been extracted separately from their ore minerals (chalcopyrite and cassiterite) and then through bronze making processes they were forged together. Consequently, it can be concluded that extractions were not from one natural ore mineral. This was an important feature of metalworking in that space-time grid.