Determining cinnabar provenance through mercury isotope measurement

This proposal presents an innovative approach to exploring the provenance of cinnabar, a vivid red mercury sulfide with a rich historical use in funerary practices, medicine, and cosmetics across various cultures and epochs. The project seeks to employ isotopic analysis, specifically focusing on mercury isotopes, to determine the geological origins of cinnabar samples from established historical sites. This investigation will utilize non-destructive Nuclear Resonance Transmission Imaging (NRTI) in conjunction with traditional multicollector ICP-MS methods, allowing for a comparison of their effectiveness in accurately tracing cinnabar sources.
The successful execution of this project promises to provide a non-destructive analytical tool for cultural heritage studies, significantly reducing conservation concerns linked with conventional methodologies.
This proposal seeks authorization for four days of beamtime at the INES facility, which is essential for conducting the comprehensive isotopic analyses required to fulfill the project's objectives.