Croatian Appoxiomenos alloy composition and lead provenance study

Abstract

An ancient bronze statue of an athlete with a strigil (known as Apoxiomenos) - was raised from the north Adriatic Sea in 1999. In order to help to determine its place and date of manufacture various scientific techniques were used. 14C dating performed by the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) on the organic material found inside the statue gave calibrated dates between 100 B.C. and 250 A.D. Non-destructive analysis performed by portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) system and external beam Particle Induced X-Ray Emission (PIXE) spectroscopy could not provide representative results for metal alloy composition due to the electrochemical deterioration of the surface of bronze in seawater. This wa..