Original paper
X-ray powder diffraction clustering and quantitative phase analysis on historic mortars
Piovesan, Rebecca; Dalconi, Maria Chiara; Maritan, Lara; Mazzoli, Claudio
European Journal of Mineralogy Volume 25 Number 2 (2013), p. 165 - 175
published: Jun 12, 2013
Abstract
This paper describes the application of cluster analysis to X-ray powder diffraction patterns (XRPD) to define homogeneous groups of mortar-based materials according to their mineralogical composition. For this purpose, the diffraction patterns of 110 samples of mortars from the Temple of Venus (Pompeii, southern Italy) were used to test the method. Rietveld refinement, for quantitative mineralogical phase analysis, was performed on the most representative sample of each cluster. The mineralogical grouping yielded by cluster analysis of XRPD data turned out to be consistent with the petrographic groups.
Keywords
x-ray powder diffraction • cluster analysis • figure of merit • rietveld quantitative phase analysis • historic mortars • pompeii • archaeometry