Towards full object analysis of precious metal artefacts

This PhD studentship, funded by The Goldsmiths' Foundation, aims to use state-of-the-art methods to derive detail about the provenance of precious silver artefacts and understand what detail is being missed using current assaying approaches. The project will showcase insights at different length scales using techniques ranging from low-cost equipment that could be acquired in an assay office to high-cost ultra-high resolution national facility methods. Partnering with the Goldsmiths' Company Assay Office in London, this project will analyse and authenticate precious silver metal artefacts by uncovering their hidden chemical and structural signatures using powerful techniques such as micro-XRF, synchrotron diffraction, SIMS, and 3D X-ray CT. The research will reveal how variations in composition, microstructure, and metal-making processes shape an object's unique metal pedigree, probing beneath surfaces to detect impurities and internal features while exploring new methods for embedding invisible authenticity markers. Advanced data tools and neural network algorithms will turn these high-resolution insights into searchable, verifiable databases to better inform assay decision making. The studentship is based at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy as part of the Structural Materials Group.