ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Analysis of microstructural characteristics of modern replicas of phosphoric and arsenic-phosphoric iron alloys, a calibration study

Abstract: Many iron-and-steel artefacts produced in Europe between the 2nd and 14th centuries AD were produced with pattern-welded composites materials made of phosphoric- or phosphoric-arsenic iron and phosphorus/arsenic-free iron or steel. Identification of phosphoric- and arsenic-phosphoric iron in archaeological iron artefacts is of extreme importance for determining both the manner of their production and technological characteristics, and in the broader context for mapping the evolution of blacksmithing traditions. Neutron imaging and BENT are potentially effective methods for the investigation of this type of archaeological metallic artefacts. We propose to start the activity related to the identification and characterization of central European archaeological artefacts containing phosphoric/arsenic iron by determining morphological and microstructural features of replicas of known characteristics, to pave the way for future historical metallurgy sample analysis.

Principal Investigator: Dr Francesco Grazzi
Experimenter: Dr Ji?í Ho?ek
Experimenter: Ms Caterina Lupi
Local Contact: Dr Ranggi Ramadhan
Experimenter: Dr Adam Thiele
Experimenter: Dr Francesco Cantini
Experimenter: Dr Antonella Scherillo

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2410045

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2410045

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Francesco Grazzi et al; (2025): Analysis of microstructural characteristics of modern replicas of phosphoric and arsenic-phosphoric iron alloys, a calibration study, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2410045

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.