İlk Tunç Çağı’ndan Osmanlı Dönemi’ne Metal Silahların Elementel Kompozisyonları

Big Data in Heritage Science: Establishing the First National Metallurgical Database and Auditing the “Turkish Museum Mode” pXRF Calibration

Title: Elemental Compositions of Metal Weapons from the Early Bronze Age to the Ottoman Period (İlk Tunç Çağı’ndan Osmanlı Dönemi’ne Metal Silahların Elementel Kompozisyonları)
Authors: Uğur GENÇ (Restorer-Conservator / PhD Candidate), Anıl ÇETİNKAYA
Collaboration: Haluk Perk Museum
Publication: Proceedings of the 35th International Symposium on Archaeometry (Arkeometri Sonuçları Toplantısı), Diyarbakır, Vol. 35, Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, pp. 693-709.
Year: 2019

From Isolated Museum Collections to a Globally Accessible Digital Metallurgy Network

When dealing with unprovenanced private museum collections, establishing historical truth requires moving beyond individual stylistic typologies. Following a scientific invitation from Prof. Dr. Önder Bilgi, I led a massive non-destructive analytical campaign on 291 ancient metal weapons—including axes, daggers, swords, maces, and spearheads—spanning from the Early Bronze Age to the Ottoman Era.

This project marks a revolutionary milestone in Turkish heritage science for two reasons. First, it serves as the official launchpad for MESAS-VB, the first national digital repository designed to map the elemental evolution of ancient weaponry. Second, it is the premier academic study to field-test the newly developed ‘Alloy Plus Turkish Museum Mode’ on a handheld Olympus Vanta pXRF unit. Rather than blindly trusting the ‘black box’ data of industrial settings, we executed a strict forensic protocol to track how surface corrosion, soil-derived silicon, and instrument libraries interact to affect the quantification of ancient arsenical coppers, tin bronzes, and early brasses.

Key Highlights & Impact

The Power of 442 Measurements: Executing a strict multi-point analysis workflow (minimum two points per artifact) to document the heterogeneous alloy distribution of 291 historical weapons.
Auditing the “Museum Mode”: Evaluating the efficiency of the custom Turkish Museum Mode software calibration, proving its success in cross-referencing industry-grade alloy matrixes with complex archaeological deterioration layers.
The Soil Identity (Silicon Tracking): Strategically choosing not to ignore soil-derived Silicon (Si) signals in uncleaned artifacts. This forensic decision allowed us to register geographical burial markers, confirming the historical authenticity of the market-acquired collection.
Arsenic vs. Production Safety: Utilizing pXRF mapping to detect highly toxic and carcinogenic arsenical copper alloys (reaching over 2%–12% As). This serves as a vital forensic safety manual, warning future conservators to take strict pulmonary and skin precautions during mechanical cleaning.
Uncovering Anachronisms: Identifying modern aluminum-bronze intrusions or recent lead-heavy castings within the collection, providing the museum with an unarguable tool for forgery detection.

Genç, U. ve Çetinkaya, A. (2020). “İlk Tunç Çağından Osmanlı’ya Metal Silahların Elementel Kompozisyonları”, 35. Arkeometri Sonuçları Toplantısı, (17-21 Haziran 2019, Dicle Üniversitesi, Diyarbakır), Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü Yayınları, 693-709.

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