An attempt to date an antique Benin bronze using neutron resonance capture analysis.
Neutron resonance capture analysis was applied to a bronze commemorative plaque from the West-African country Benin. By comparison with recently published element compositions of Benin memorial heads, the alloy of the plaque could be dated to the period 1725-1897 AD. In the analysis procedure, the object was not damaged, cleaned or altered, and very little long-lived radioactivity was induced.
Blaauw
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Interfaculty Reactor Institute, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft, Netherlands. blaauw@iri.tudelft.nl
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Mutti
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