Meteorite Dagger?

Mare Rosu · 6th August 2006, 05:36 PM

Great information on testing for trace elements. Obvious to me we have some heavy hitters at bat here

I have some knowledge of Neutron Activation Analysis testing from my Georgia Tech days. I wonder if anyone has tried or has any knowledge of it?
For anyone interested, this is a Link to some information about it, I found it using Google search. one side effect is that the item is now radioactive and depending on the isotope half life it may be a while before it decays down.

http://www.missouri.edu/~glascock/naa_over.htm

Gene

Jeff Pringle · 6th August 2006, 07:42 PM

See what happens when you use the words 'meteorite' and 'dagger' in a thread title, Gene?

It had occured to me that pre-industrial iron would have a different (and more variable) chemical signature; I suspect it would not cause too much noise to obscure the extra-terrestrial signature over all the potential elements...there might be archaeological papers that have previous analyses on old keris, one could check them against modern steel & look for differences.

fearn · 6th August 2006, 08:09 PM

You're certainly right about that, Jeff. To be honest, I only read the thread because I'd just finished reading about the "Arctic Iron Age"--where the Inuit and Dorset peoples before them made tool blades out of meteoric iron for, I don't know, a thousand years or so. Another story.

Anyway, I think it'd be a great subject for a metallurgy/archeology PhD--looking at Indonesian blade making, and determining how much of the steel's chemical composition/isotopic signature depends on the metal source, how much depends on the carbon and fuel sources, and how much depends on the arsenic staining (at least in the keris blades). It would be interesting to know if there is enough information to determine things like blade origin (or origin of materials) or blade age through a test.

Not something I'd want to do, although I'd be happy to help analyze the data for patterns. Oh well, something to dream about.

F

6th August 2006, 05:36 PM	#1
Mare Rosu Deceased Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: USA, DEEP SOUTH, GEORGIA, Y'all hear? Posts: 121	Trace element testing Great information on testing for trace elements. Obvious to me we have some heavy hitters at bat here I have some knowledge of Neutron Activation Analysis testing from my Georgia Tech days. I wonder if anyone has tried or has any knowledge of it? For anyone interested, this is a Link to some information about it, I found it using Google search. one side effect is that the item is now radioactive and depending on the isotope half life it may be a while before it decays down. http://www.missouri.edu/~glascock/naa_over.htm Gene

6th August 2006, 07:42 PM	#2
Jeff Pringle Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 189	See what happens when you use the words 'meteorite' and 'dagger' in a thread title, Gene? It had occured to me that pre-industrial iron would have a different (and more variable) chemical signature; I suspect it would not cause too much noise to obscure the extra-terrestrial signature over all the potential elements...there might be archaeological papers that have previous analyses on old keris, one could check them against modern steel & look for differences.

6th August 2006, 08:09 PM	#3
fearn Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,247	You're certainly right about that, Jeff. To be honest, I only read the thread because I'd just finished reading about the "Arctic Iron Age"--where the Inuit and Dorset peoples before them made tool blades out of meteoric iron for, I don't know, a thousand years or so. Another story. Anyway, I think it'd be a great subject for a metallurgy/archeology PhD--looking at Indonesian blade making, and determining how much of the steel's chemical composition/isotopic signature depends on the metal source, how much depends on the carbon and fuel sources, and how much depends on the arsenic staining (at least in the keris blades). It would be interesting to know if there is enough information to determine things like blade origin (or origin of materials) or blade age through a test. Not something I'd want to do, although I'd be happy to help analyze the data for patterns. Oh well, something to dream about. F