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Service: Hungarian National Museum Archaeometry Laboratory
Platforms
Fixlab
Techniques
3d digital microscopy Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy Micro x-ray fluorescence mapping (μxrf) Micro-raman spectroscopy Scanning electron microscopy with thermionic emission gun (sem)
Organization
Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Centre, Hungarian National Museum
Hungary
Service contact persons
Attila Kreiter
kreiter.attila@hnm.hu
Reference
The Archaeometry Laboratory of the Hungarian National Museum specializes in the analysis of museum artifacts, particularly archaeological and historical objects. The services provided by the laboratory are unique, as it has been collecting archaeological and historical archaeometric data for nearly 20 years. Its largest collection consists of archaeological ceramic data, spanning from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages.
The laboratory is equipped to analyze a wide range of materials, including ceramics, stones, artificial building materials (e.g., bricks, mortar, plaster), glass objects, metals, paints, enamel, glaze, and organic materials such as archaeological textiles and dyes. It also investigates biological remains (e.g., bones) and various organic residues, such as bitumen-like materials (beeswax, tar, pitch) used as adhesives in tool manufacturing and repair (e.g., axes, knives, arrowheads), as well as food residues. Both destructive and non-destructive techniques are employed by the laboratory. These methods enable detailed material composition analyses. The resulting data are used to reconstruct how the analyzed objects were made, identify the types of raw materials used, and determine the possible provenance of these materials. The laboratory is fully equipped to analyse ceramics, stones, artificial building materials (brick, mortar, plaster), glass objects, metals, paints, enamel, glaze, organic materials, such as archaeological textiles and dyeing materials, biological remains (e.g. bones), and various organic residues e.g. bitumen-like materials (beeswax, tar, pitch) used as adhesives in the manufacture and repair of tools (e.g. axes, knives, arrowheads), food residues etc. The laboratory provides both destructive and non‐destructive techniques. The following methods and techniques are provided to analyse a wide range of objects, raw materials and archaeological features: - Petrography - Heavy mineral analysis - Micromorphology - 3D microscopy - Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive and wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and cathodoluminescence spectroscopy (SEM-EDS/WDS/CL) - Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) - Micro-X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy - Portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy - Micro-Raman spectroscopy - X-ray
Fields of application
Archaeological conservation Archaeology Archaeometallurgy Archaeometry Art history Experimental archaeology Heritage science (cultural heritage discipline) Industrial archaeology Materials science Public archaeology Urban archaeology
Methods
Tools