Texture analysis of Bronze Age axes by neutron diffraction

Neutron diffraction has been utilised as a non-invasive diagnostic tool to gain insight into the ancient metallurgic and manufacturing techniques employed for the production of three bronze age axes from archaic to late bronze age (20th to 13th Century BC). The analysed bronze artefacts are from the “Terramare” and other bronze age settlements near Modena, Italy. Neutron diffraction provides the alloy and phase compositions in a totally non destructive approach, without interference from surface alteration and corrosion layers. Furthermore, neutron based texture analysis, with the advantage of large grain statistics deep into the bulk, provides details of the production techniques that can complement traditional metallographic examinations, and may provide unique information for samples that cannot suffer invasive treatments.