The potential of external IBA and LA-ICP-MS for obsidian elemental characterization

Combined external Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) measurements, consisting of Proton Induced X-ray Emission–Proton Induced Gamma-ray Emission–Rutherford Back-Scattering (PIXE-PIGE-RBS) have been performed on several obsidian fragments with archaeological significance at the Rossendorf tandem accelerator using a 3.85 MeV proton beam. A comparison was made between these external IBA results and the ones previously obtained on the same obsidian samples using Laser Ablation–Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The purpose of the study was to assess the potentiality of external IBA for provenance studies on archaeological obsidian, especially as a non-destructive alternative to the LA-ICP-MS method. As an example, the source attribution of an archaeological obsidian fragment from Transylvania to Tokay Mountains/Slovakian range flow is discussed.