Analytical pyrolysis vs. classical wet chemical analysis to assess the decay of archaeological waterlogged wood.

The macromolecular complexity of wood limits the possibility of obtaining complete chemical information on its alteration in archaeological objects. This paper compares the results obtained in the characterisation of the components of archaeological wood by a classical wet chemical method and by an instrumental method based on pyrolysis in presence of hexamethyldisilazane coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, Py(HMDS)-GC/MS. We compare the results obtained with the two methods quantitatively.