Età del Bronzo al periodo ottomano composizione elementare di armi di metallo

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

Titolo: Elemental Compositions of Metal Weapons from the Early Bronze Age to the Ottoman Period (Età del Bronzo al periodo ottomano composizione elementare di armi di metallo)
Authors: Ugur GIOVANI,tr (Restorer-Conservator / PhD Candidate), Anıl ÇETİNKAYA
Collaboration: Haluk Perk Museum
Pubblicazione: Proceedings of the 35th International Symposium on Archaeometry (Meeting archeometria Risultati), Diyarbakir, vol. 35, Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, pp. 693-709.
Anno: 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.

Punti salienti & Impatto

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.

giovane, il. e Cetinkaya, UN. (2020). "Composizioni elementari di armi metalliche dalla prima età del bronzo all'impero ottomano", 35. Meeting archeometria Risultati, (17-21 giugno 2019, Dicle University, Diyarbakir), Pubblicazioni della Direzione Generale dei Beni Culturali e dei Musei, 693-709.

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