ASSESSING THE APPLICABILITY OF PORTABLE XRF ANALYSIS TO THE STUDY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL BONES

As part of a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research project studying four mid-nineteenth century burials discovered and excavated in July 2011 during the Yale-New Haven Hospital renovations, a sub-project was carried out in the Department of Anthropology at Yale University. This project assesses the applicability of a portable X-ray fluorescence analysis (pXRF) to the study of archaeological bones.

Being able to perform non-destructive analysis onsite has numerous advantages in archaeological research. Therefore, portable XRF has become an increasingly popular analytical method in archaeological research. Through the careful consideration of issues such as matrix-specific calibration and sampling, this paper evaluates whether pXRF would be an useful alternative method of analysis when other more traditional analytical methods for the study of archaeological bone are inaccessible or unsuitable.