Synchrotron SAXS, WAXS and XRF -derived structural and compositional descriptors of palm leaves and palm-leaf manuscripts and statistical analysis

This dataset contains analysis-ready and derived data from SAXS, WAXS, and XRF measurements of palm-leaf reference materials and manuscripts. It includes analysis code, Jupyter notebooks, derived descriptor tables, fit parameters, representative fit plots, and the corrected and integrated scattering data required to reproduce the analyses presented in the associated thesis and articles.

The raw and facility-corrected integrated synchrotron data for Samples 0–3 are archived separately by the respective facilities:

* Sample 0: DESY, beamline P62, 2024, DOI: [10.60883/E007EE79FB]
* Samples 1 and 2: ESRF, beamline BM02, 2024, DOI: [10.15151/ESRF-ES-1520005738]
* Sample 3: DESY, beamline P62, 2025, DOI: [10.60883/410671131A]

These sample numbers correspond to the naming convention used throughout the analysis code and notebooks. The analysis scripts and notebooks were developed as a common workflow and are adapted across the different measurement campaigns.

Structure of the data

├── README.txt
├── samples_metadata.xlsx
├── code/
├── sample_0/
├── sample_1-2/
├── sample_3/

-- `samples_metadata.xlsx`

Contains metadata for all palm-leaf reference materials and manuscript samples employed across the different beamtime campaigns.

-- `code/`

Contains the Python scripts and Jupyter notebooks used for data processing, fitting, descriptor extraction, visualization, and statistical analysis. The workflows were developed jointly for the different measurement campaigns and may require minor path adjustments or switching commented/uncommented sections before reuse.

-- `sample_X/`

Each `sample_X` folder corresponds to the sample-number convention used in the analysis code and notebooks.

The folders contain, where applicable:

sample_X/
├── measurement_list_sampleX.xlsx
├── scan_areas.pdf
├── coordinates/
├── xrf_maps/
├── WAXS/
└── SAXS/


-- `measurement_list_sampleX.xlsx`

Contains the measurement names, assigned scan numbers, sample identifiers, and sample–detector angle (\alpha).

-- scan_areas.pdf

Contains photos of the objects and indications of rough position of the scans

-- coordinates/

Contains text files assigning each measured pixel to one of the following classes:

* `None`: empty beam path or sample holder;
* `0`: measurement on sample material without inscription;
* `1`: measurement on an inscription area.

-- xrf_maps/
-- config files for pyMCA (.cfg)
-- pyMCA_maps/
Contains concentration-like elemental maps calculated with pyMCA

-- WAXS/
-- example_plots/
contains example WAXS-intengrated scan-averaged fits
-- few specific folders with point by point fits and descriptor values
-- txt amorphous contribution descriptor WAXS-intengrated scan-averaged: amorphous_contribution.txt
-- txt crystallinity descriptors WAXS-integrated, scan-average: av_crystallinity_descriptors.txt
-- txt crystallinity fit parameters WAXS-integrated, scan-average: av_crystallinity_fits.txt

Contains text files with scan-averaged WAXS fits and extracted descriptors. For selected scans, additional subfolders contain point-by-point analysis results across the scanned area.

-- `SAXS/`
-- example_plots/
contains example SAXS azimuthaly-intengrated scan-averaged fits
-- txt fits and descriptors of SAXS azimuthaly-intengrated scan-averaged over 'inked' regions: orientation_probability_sampleX_ink.txt
-- txt fits and descriptors of SAXS azimuthaly-intengrated scan-averaged over 'uninked' regions: orientation_probability_sampleX_unink.txt

Used equipment: SASMAT setup at P62 beamline at PETRA III, as well as the setup at the BM02 beamline at the ESRF, both of them with the addition of XRF detectors.