Gold traces to trace gold
Résumé
Tracing gold back to its source by means of the elemental composition of objects contributes to the knowledge of the trade routes used in the past. The analysis of a large number of ancient gold objects showed that in most cases only a few elements are useful to characterize the metal. Quantitative analysis of these elements was performed on a set of gold samples with different techniques: inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in liquid mode and with laser ablation, 12 MeV proton activation analysis, fast neutron activation analysis, particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and PIXE induced X-ray fluorescence. The aim of this paper is to present a discussion on the possibilities and limitations of these techniques to characterize gold.