X-ray technology has potential to transform archaeology and analysis of ancient pottery

A researcher at the University of New England is pioneering the use of new X-ray technology in analysing the composition of ancient pottery.

On her retirement as a teacher of art and mathematics at Bairnsdale Secondary College in East Gippsland, Jesse Walker knew exactly what she wanted to do: study archaeology at the University of New England.

She didn’t know then, however, that her two-year honours program would involve her in exploring the use of X-ray fluorescence in archaeological research.

Archaeology and palaeoanthropology at UNE acquired a portable Bruker X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) instrument at the end of 2008, and when Ms Walker began her archaeology honours program in 2009 she was recognised - with her background in mathematics - as an ideal candidate to explore its capabilities in archaeology.

The PXRF instrument offers the exciting possibility of analysing the elemental composition of ancient ceramics without the necessity of destroying the material being analysed.

Its versatility opens new avenues for researchers, as they can now study valuable museum specimens without moving them to a laboratory.

The technology involves the analysis of ‘secondary’ (or fluorescent) X-rays emitted by a material that has been excited by bombarding it with high-energy X-rays.

It is used in a variety of disciplines, including geochemistry, forensic science and archaeology, but its potential in the study of ceramics - particularly those housed in museums - has received little attention.

Ms Walker has at her disposal not only the PXRF instrument but also a museum well-endowed with ancient ceramics: UNE’s Museum of Antiquities, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.

Using a set of potsherds (fragments of broken pottery) of known composition available to her through an ARC-funded research project on Iron Age trade and exchange, Ms Walker has figured out how to make the x -ray instrument suitable for the analysis of ancient ceramics.

She has used this same technology to analyse the elemental composition of two small ceramic vessels in the museum, dating from the early Iron Age.