ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Thirteen Roman glass samples, including seven entire glass beads, from the ancient town of Augusta Emerita (SW Spain) have been characterized by LIBS to explore its feasibility and their possibilities in the full study of non-destructible historic glasses. Along with LIBS other conventional techniques, such as SEM-EDS, XRF and visible spectrophotometry, have been also used in the present work. LIBS stratigraphic analysis, which consist of the application of successive laser pulses on the same spot, has been especially addressed at characterizing particular features of historic glasses, such as bulk chemical composition, surface degradation pathologies (dealkalinization layers and deposits), chromophores, and opacifying elements. The obtained results indicate that LIBS can be considered as a useful and alternative technique in the study of non-destructible glass samples, above all in those archaeological and historic glasses which have been conserved under burial conditions.
