土壌中の考古学的金属製品の腐食に関する調査(研究委託内容報告書)

Inspection about the corrosion of metallic archaeological artifacts in ground

本田 卓*; 山口 新吾*

Honda, Takashi*; not registered

数百年以上にわたって土壌中に埋もれていた鉄製の考古遺物は、腐食による厚い錆層に覆われており金属鉄の残存状態や原形の推定が極めて難しい。本研究では約5001,000年前の遺跡から発掘された釜、短刀、釘などを対象に研究を実施した。(1)X線CT計測により錆層と鉄とを高精度に分離計測でき、更に鉄が残存しない場合も原形状を推定できること等を明らかにした。また、X線透過試験との比較も行った。(2)密度測定、付着物の化学分析を実施し、X線CT計測により得られた錆厚さから腐食量及び腐食速度の推定を行った。(3)同年代の鉄滓を評価し、古代鉄と現在の炭素鋼の性状の違いについて検討した。

In general, it is very difficult to evaluate the residual state of metallic iron and the original shape of iron-base archaeological artifacts, as these are covered by thick oxide films formed in the ground during over several hundred years. The purpose of this research is to quantify the corrosion of an artifact such as base, knife, and nail, which was digged out of the relics about 500-1,000 years old. (1)The outer oxide film layer and the inner metallic iron can be quantitatively divided by using X-ray CT method. Furthermore, the original surfaces of artifacts can be estimated from the obtained images, even if the metallic iron has corroded completely. The X-ray CT images were also compared with those obtained by X-ray transmission inspection. (2)The corrosion amounts and rates were evaluated on the basis of thicknesses, densities, and iron concentrations of oxide films. (3)The characteristic differences between ancient iron and modern carbon steel were evaluated by analyzing the ancient iron slag.