ANALYTICAL DETERMINATION OF COLORING ELEMENTS AND OF THEIR COMPOUNDS IN GLASS-BEADS FROM GRAVEYARDS OF THE MEROWINGS TIME

428 Monochrome beads from mainly female graves excavated at Gross-Gerau, Pleidelsheim and Weingarten (Germany) were examined by non-destructive methods, i.e. energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDXRF), wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis (WDXRF) with fundamental parameter evaluation, and X-ray diffraction analysis. The results obtained by EDXRF were compared with those for beads from Donaueschingen and Eichstetten, published in former papers. In most cases the results obtained by WDXRF show very high contents of the colouring compounds, corresponding to a low glass quality. The diffraction measurements show crystalline colouring compounds at the surface of the glass beads that can be characterized as Pb2SnSbO6.5 for the yellow beads and as Cu2O for the ochre beads.