Piero Bartoloni

… Life is nothing more than an illusion. It's like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning.

Keywords: phase analysis, ancient bronze coins, funerary rites ... New developments on the D19 state-of-the-art single-crystal neutron diffractometer Michael J Turner1,2, JR Allibon2, J Archer2, JF Clergeau2, P Courtois2, MG Davidson4, TF Forsyth2,3, S Fuard2, W Fuller3, ...

A recent excavation in the Phoenician-Punic necropolis of Mount Sirai, located in the southwestern part of Sardinia, ltaly, has brought to light a number of tombs contextually attributed to a period from the early 6 1 h to early 5 1 h century BC, which is simultaneous with the beginning of the Carthago influence in Sardinia. Among the interred burials recently brought to light, the skeletal remains, sometimes of two superposed bodies, are found in a p rimary position and with fine anatomie connection. Some of the bones were visually stained , suggesting they were possibly subjected to f ire treatment. In or der to ascertain more objectively whether the bodies were subjected to burning , the bones from ali the tombs were investigated by powder X-ray d iffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy techniques. After excluding the role of important d iagenetic effects, from line broadening/sharpenìng analysis of hydroxylapatite in the bones according to the Rietveld method, it was evaluated that the bodies were probably subjected to a temperature regime from 300 to 700°C. These data were supplemented and confirmed by an analysis of the splitting factor (SF) of apatite phosphate peaks in the infra-red spectrum of the bones. Our results ind icate the existence ot a rite intermediate between incineration and inhumat ion. This sort of 'semi-combustion', perhaps limited to the period of the early 5 1 h century BC, appears to be pecul iar just to this site.

Sardinia hosted many Phoenician and Punic communities, as integrated forms of pacific cohabitation with the Lebanese merchants or actual colonies for the exploitation of the rich mines and wealthy coastal emporia under the Carthaginians (750-250 B.C.). One of their most important settlements is that of Mount Sirai, in the south west of the island, whose excavation revealed a complex structure of the site and allowed the discovery of excellent finds, as steles, everyday-life objects and tools, grave goods, amulets and coins. Punic coins were made by gold, electrum or, more commonly, by bronze. The first coin mintage from Carthage dates back to the IV century B.C. Whether the mintage was exclusive to Carthage or permitted outside the city too is still a matter of debate. 
There is the possibility that mintages were allowed in Sardinia (320-238 B.C. as well as in 216), in Spain (237-209 B.C.) and Southern Italy (216-203 B.C.).
We have analyzed ten of these bronze coins (Fig. 1) to unveil the secrets of their mintage, origins and inner structure. Some traditional spectroscopic techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) and fluorescence (XRF) have been used for this purpose, allowing us to learn about their mineral content (XRD) and elemental composition (XRF) [1,2]. Here we report about these findings.