X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of Metal Artifacts From the Montgomery Site, Kenosha County, Wisconsin

In recent years, Dr. Robert Sasso has led a team of professional and student archaeologists in excavating a site near UW-Parkside, an early historic site known as the Montgomery Site. Through survey and excavations, the teams have encountered numerous artifacts consisting of ferrous and non-ferrous (iron and non-iron) metals. It will be my goal to analyze artifacts recovered from the site, using X-ray fluorescence to determine the chemical composition of the artifacts. X-ray fluorescence is a non-destructive analysis that determines the absorption rate of X- rays that the machine fires at the artifacts and, based on the absorption rate the machine, analyzes the elements present in the artifact and determines the constituent components. In the past, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) has been used to analyze the composition of building materials, ceramics, glass, and other artifacts where removing them from their current position or where the use of a standard mass spectrometer would destroy portions of the artifact. By using the hand-held, Bruker Tracer series pXRF spectrometer to analyze metal and alloy artifacts at the site, we hope our results will aid in the identification, and perhaps the origins and dating, of theses artifacts. These results will add to the growing knowledge of archaeological remains recovered at the site