Conservation scientists belonging to very different areas of expertise are usually involved in research on the cultural heritage. The main aim of the diagnostic campaigns, despite analytical equipment, is the obtainment of analytical results and application of scientific approaches to study the construction procedures, the conservation state, or eventually the restored areas of the ancient manufacts.

This paper presents the preliminary result of scientific examinations carried out on some micro-samples from Roman bronze tibiae held in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) and analysed for the first time by several analytical techniques. A chemical characterization of the pipe alloys and their deterioration characteristics have been performed. Optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy (SEM-EDX), X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to understand the corrosive morphological characteristics, to clear the nature of patina and to analyse the elementary composition of the materials. Moreover, an archaeogenetic procedure, that allows the combination of archaeological/anthropological analysis with the most modern techniques of genomic sequencing, has been performed on bone samples from the Roman pipes. Depending on the amount of DNA extracted, by this technique is possible to obtain information on the animal and, eventually, of its geographic area of provenience. The chemical and genomic results from the alloys and bones have been elaborated and a first report has been obtained.