Rock paintings from Minas Gerais, Brasil, investigated by in-situ Mössbauer spectroscopy

The archaeological site of Santana do Riacho is located at about 90 km northeastern of Belo Horizonte, in the “Serra do Cipo” region. The recent development of a miniaturised Mossbauer spectrometer opened the possibility of making in-situ measurements of the rock paitings, and the results of such pioneer work is presented in this contribution. The spectrometer MIMOS II operates in backscattering geometry measuring the scattered 14.41 keV Mossbauer radiation and the 6.4 keV Fe X-rays. The dimensions of the whole instrument are approximately 110 mm (long) × 80 mm (diameter). The paintings were selected based on their colours and apparent thickness, and six spots were measured. The analysis of…