A Roman bronze statuette with gilded silver mask from Sardinia. An EDXRF study

A Roman bronze statuette from the 2nd Century BC was recovered from a nuragic sanctuary close to Florinas, in the north of Sardinia. The facial portion of the statuette is covered by a silver mask, partially gilded and attached to the bronze by tin-lead welding. The silver mask was carefully analyzed by portable energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), a non-destructive and non-invasive method. The aim of the analysis was to reconstruct the layered structure of the silver gilt mask, and to determine homogeneity and thickness of the gold, silver and lead-tin sheets. This is possible by using the internal ratio of the X-ray lines, i.e. starting from the surface, Au (Lα/Lβ), Ag (Kα/Kβ), Au-Lα/Ag-Kα and Pb (Lα/Lβ).The results were compared with those obtained with simulated X-ray spectra, obtained both experimentally and by using the Monte Carlo simulation technique. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.