Chromophore behaviour of iron, copper, cobalt and antimony in ancient tile, faience and porcelain glazes plus archaeological glass beads: An overview on X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy studies

The modern X-ray sources available at large-scale installation facilities allow for the study of materials through powerful chemical and structural characterization techniques, particularly X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Along the last decade, the non-destructive characterization of a diversity of cultural materials - glazed ceramics (decorated tiles, faiences, porcelains) and glasses (archaeological glass beads) - as well as pigmenting natural materials, has been performed at the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) in Grenoble/France with the support of EU. The electronic situation of chromophore ions and fuser metals was assessed by analyzing the details observed in X-ray near-edge absorption curves (XANES spectra) collected from the subject elements. A brief overview is presented on recently published results.