XRF AND MICRO-PIXE AS INVESTIGATION TOOLS FOR ANCIENT METALLURGY - THE CASES OF PRE-MONETARY SIGNS TYPE "ARROWHEAD" FROM HISTRIA AND OF AGIGHIOL HOARD

Compositional analysis can identify alloys made by ancient people, help in the authentication of items with uncertain origin (i.e. not excavated from well-controlled archaeological environment) and bring information on the employed metallurgical procedures. The main metallurgical problem of ancient bronze alloys was to have a good homogeneous micro-structure at least in the range of few microns that means to avoid elemental segregation. If X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis gives the general elemental composition (approx. 30 mm(2) investigated area), micro-Proton Induced X-ray Emission (micro-PIXE) is an excellent tool to investigate the alloys microstructure, especially segregation phenomena. We investigated warfare Scythian-design arrowheads and pre-monetary signs type "arrowhead" found in Dobroudja, especially in Histria area, but also in Floriile (a Thracian settlement on Danube), both supposed produced by Histria and by its "barbarian" neighbors (Getae, Scythians). For comparison, we also present a preliminary study on two Geto-Thracian silver appliques, part of Agighiol (Northern Dobroudja) hoard.