Research internship at the Austrian Academy of Sciences

On 01-31/12/2023 our PhD student M.Sc. Sara Mandera was on a research internship with Dr. Michael Brandl at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, as part of the Grant4NCUStudent program, financed by the Nicolaus Copernicus University ID_UB. There, she conducted petrographic observations in water immersion and geochemical analyzes using inductively coupled plasma ionization mass spectrometry after laser ablation (LA-ICP-MS) and Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) of chocolate flint. Samples from both the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland and the Świętokrzyskie Mountains were analyzed, which may allow us to find features that distinguish chocolate flint from different locations. All methods used are non-destructive or, as in the case of ICP, destructive to a very small extent, therefore they can be used when examining the provenance of 
the raw materials from which archaeological artefacts werw made.