A provenance study of iron archaeological artefacts by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry multi-elemental analysis

Raw materials and wastes (i.e. ore, slag and laitier) from ironmaking archaeological sites have been analyzed in order to understand the behavior of the trace elements in the ancient ironmaking processes and to find the significant-most elements to characterize an iron making region. The ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) appears to be an excellent technique for this type of studies. The comparison between the ICP-MS results obtained with the Standard Addition method and the INAA (Instrumental Neutron Activation Analyses) results proved that Sc, Co, (Ni), Rb, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Sm, Eu, Yb, Hf, Th, U contents in the ores, slag and laitiers, and Co and Ni contents in the cast iron can be successfully determined by ICP-MS after wet acid digestion (low detection limits, good sensitivity and precision). By using significant trace element pairs (Yb/Ce, Ce/Th, La/Sc, U/Th, Nb/Y) present in the ores, laitiers and slag, it is possible to discriminate different French ironmaking regions as the Pays de Bray, Lorraine and Pays dʹOuche. These results open the way to further studies on the provenance of iron objects. The comparison between the ICP-MS results obtained with the Standard Calibration Curves method and the INAA results shows that matrices rich in iron, affect the ICP-MS analyses by suppressing the analytes signal. Further studies are necessary to improve understanding matrix effects.