Analytical methods based on ionizing radiation for the non-destructive analysis of cultural heritage objects

Application of various analytical techniques for the study of some objects or parts of the objects belonging to museum collections has been made since the 19th century, generally by the application of some classical analytical techniques to provide answers to questions of the historians. In the last century, powerful tools for developing an independent domain of science, archaeometry (application of scientific techniques to the analysis of archaeological materials) have been developed. Analytical techniques based on ionizing radiations, such as particle induced X-Ray emission, X-ray diffraction or X-ray fluorescence are some of the most important analytical techniques which can be used as non-destructive techniques with the possibility to provide information about the morphology or the structure of the samples. Determination of the surface corrosion layers and composition is important both for identifying compounds that form different alloys (which can be considered support material for important objects, such as numismatic artifacts), and also for their conservation.