University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637-5418)
Susanne Paulus (Project Director: June 2018 to August 2022)
PR-263935-19
Research and Development
Preservation and Access
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[White paper][Grant products]
Totals:
$70,363 (approved)
$42,339 (awarded)
Grant period:
1/1/2019 – 12/31/2021
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Far from Home: Exploring the application of non-destructive XRF clay analysis for the provenience study of cuneiform tablets
A study of the applicability of geochemical clay
analyses, including portable energy dispersive
X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), for establishing
the provenance of cuneiform tablets held by the Oriental Institute (OI)
of the University of Chicago.
Unprovenanced clay tablets with cuneiform writing from the Near East present a legal, ethical, and scholarly challenge for cultural heritage preservation, museum collections, and scholars. The goal of this project is to prove that chemical clay analysis employing X-ray fluorescence and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is a viable method to determine the provenance of those antique objects.
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