Speaker
Dr
Anna Fedrigo
(STFC, ISIS Neutron Source)
Description
Scientific investigations and archaeometric studies have played a major role in the field of archaeology, especially with regard to materials transformed through human activity. Until recently, metal artefacts have been mainly studied through standard analytical techniques like metallography and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), which required the samples to be taken from the artefact and provided only punctual information. On the contrary, neutron techniques allow measuring bulk properties in a non-invasive way.
Scandinavians from the Viking Age (800–1050 AD) were famous for being brave seafarers and explorers, and their weapons represented an indispensable tool in their travels. Sword from the Viking age often showed ‘pattern-welding’, made by welding together thin strips of iron and steel that were twisted and forged in various ways, producing a decorative pattern on the surface. Such a process introduces a differentiated distribution of the steel related phases (ferrite, cementite and slag inclusions) in the different parts of the blade.
In this work we present a neutron imaging study of three sword blades from the Viking age belonging to the National Museum of Denmark. In particular, white beam and energy selective neutron tomography have been applied, in order to study the morphology of the blades, detect information on the forging techniques, and map the distribution of steel related phases in such composite ‘pattern-welded’ structure. The measurements have been carried out at the ANTARES beamline at FRM II (Garching, DE).
Primary author
Dr
Anna Fedrigo
(STFC, ISIS Neutron Source)
Co-authors
Dr
Alan R. Williams
(The Wallace Collection, London, United Kingdom)
Dr
Burkhard Schillinger
(FRM-II, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Garching, Germany)
Dr
Francesco Grazzi
(CNR, Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy)
Prof.
Kim Lefmann
(Nanoscience Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark)
Dr
Markus Strobl
(European Spallation Source ESS ERIC, Lund, Sweden)
Dr
Peter Pentz
(The National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark)
Dr
Poul Erik Lindelof
(University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark)
