User: Lise Saussus
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6402-3648
Organisation: Centre de recherches d’archéologie nationale – Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve Collège Érasme (BE)
Technique requested: Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE)
Facility: Grand Louvre Accelerator for Elemental Analysis (FR)
A selection of this unpublished and exceptionally well-preserved corpus from the castle of Middelburg-in-Flanders (Belgium) has been chosen for analyses of the composition of copper-based alloys and tin-based alloy, unprecedented for the period. With archaeometric tools, we studied the elemental composition of the objects, their alloys, and their impurities, to describe the links between the object’s status and the materials. The analysis of composition made it possible for the first time to identify the wide range of alloys by type of objects, as well as to determine which possible constraints (normative, economic, aesthetic, technical, etc.) have determined the use of certain alloys. We, therefore, analysed 270 objects, after the selection of a coherent corpus, by PIXE, thus favouring a minimally invasive and non-destructive analysis technique, after the removal of surface corrosion.