Reconstructing/dating technologies in Prehispanic gold metallurgy

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el 39th International Symposium on Archaeometry, celebrado en Leuven (Bélgica), del 28 de mayo al 1 de junio de 2012Combining different analytical techniques and systematic research has been the methodology applied to the study of one of the most important prehispanic gold collections in Europe kept at the Museo de América in Madrid: the Quimbaya treasure from Colombia, and the Costa Rica Collection, with a total of near two hundred objects. We have completed a three years research programm, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ref.: HAR2009-09298), with the aim of studying gold alloys, manufacturing techniques, surface treatments and state of conservation combining Optical Mycroscopy, XRF, SEM-EDS and PIXE-RBS. In some unexpected cases we were able to obtain organic material from the interior of vessels that were analysed by AMS, an important event due to the lack of archaeological contexts and chronological references in pre-Columbian metallurgy. This complementary research action was again funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science (HAR2011-12809). We present the first results and discuss the problems we had to tackle with, both from the analytical point of view and from the inadequate cleaning of the objects through their actual life since 1893, when they entered the Museum