Archaeological Lead Findings in the Ukraine

Journal Article · Wed Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2722079· OSTI ID:21055017

Danevich, F A; Kobychev, V V; Kropivyansky, B N; Mokina, V M; Nagorny, S S; Nikolaiko, A S; Poda, D V; Tretyak, V I ^[1]; Kim, S K ^[2]; Kim, H J ^[3]; Kostezh, A B ^[4]; Laubenstein, M; Nisi, S ^[5]; Voronov, S A ^[6]

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1. Institute for Nuclear Research, Kiev (Ukraine)
2. DMRC, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea (Korea, Republic of)
3. Physics Department, Kyungpook National University, Daegu (Korea, Republic of)
4. Institute for Hydrometeorology Research, Kiev (Ukraine)
5. Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi (Italy)
6. Department of Underwater Heritage, Institute of Archaeology, Kiev (Ukraine)

In June-August 2006 an expedition with the aim to look for low-radioactive archaeological lead at the bottom of the Black Sea, near the Crimean peninsula (Ukraine) was organised by a Korean-Ukrainian collaboration. The first samples with {approx}0.2 tons of total mass were found at a depth of 28 m among the relics of an ancient Greek ship. Their age has been dated to the first century B.C. This lead was used as ballast in the keel of the ship. The element composition of the samples was measured by means of X-ray fluorescence and ICP-MS analyses. The first preliminary limits on the 210Pb contamination of the samples are less than a few hundreds mBq/kg. The measurements were performed using gamma spectroscopy with HPGe-detectors and alpha spectroscopy with commercial {alpha}-detectors. Measurements of 40K, Th/U in the lead samples were undertaken in Kiev and in the underground laboratories of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS, Italy). If it was found to be radio-clean this lead could be used as high efficiency shield for ultra low-level detectors, and as raw material for growing radio-pure scintillation crystals such as PbMoO4 or PbWO4 for the search for rare processes.

• OSTI ID: 21055017
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 897, Issue 1; Conference: LRT 2006: Topical workshop on low radioactivity techniques, Aussois (France), 1-4 Oct 2006; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2722079; (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ALPHA DETECTION
ALPHA SPECTROSCOPY
CONTAMINATION
CRYSTALS
EFFICIENCY
FLUORESCENCE
GAMMA SPECTROSCOPY
HIGH-PURITY GE DETECTORS
ICP MASS SPECTROSCOPY
LEAD
LEAD 210
LEAD TUNGSTATES
POTASSIUM 40
RADIOACTIVITY
SCINTILLATIONS
SHIELDS
SOLID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
THORIUM 232
UKRAINE
URANIUM 238