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Abstract
Cultural heritage represents a bridge between the contemporary society and the past
populations, and a strong collaboration between archaeologists, art historians and
analysts may lead to the decryption of the information hidden in an ancient object.
Quantitative elemental compositional data play a key role in solving questions concerning
dating, provenance, technology, use and the relationship of ancient cultures with
the environment. Nevertheless, the scientific investigation of an artifact should
be carried out complying with some important constraints: above all the analyses should
be as little destructive as possible and performed directly on the object to preserve
its integrity. Laser ablation sampling coupled to inductively coupled plasma-mass
spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) fulfils these requirements exhibiting comparably strong analytical
performance in trace element determination. This review intends to show through the
applications found in the literature how valuable is the contribution of LA-ICP-MS
in the investigation of ancient materials such as obsidian, glass, pottery, human
remains, written heritage, metal objects and miscellaneous stone materials. The main
issues related to cultural heritage investigation are introduced, followed by a brief
description of the features of this technique. An overview of the exploitation of
LA-ICP-MS is then presented. Finally, advantages and drawbacks of this technique are
critically discussed: the fit for purpose and prospects of the use of LA-ICP-MS are
presented.