The Berkeley group showed that in fact the chemical composition of the pieces matched that of pottery made in Cyprus, which meant it had later been exported to Palestine and other sites, a result that had extensive ramifications on the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean.

[4]: 15–16 [7] In 1973, Asaro and his colleagues embarked on a study of the Colossi of Memnon, two statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III that have stood for 3400 years in the Theban necropolis, across the River Nile from the modern city of Luxor.

Erected in the early fourteenth century BCE as guardians of the Mortuary Temple, the two 50-foot monoliths consist of a quartzose sandstone rock (quartzite) formed by quartz particles cemented with iron oxide.

Asaro's group determined that the original rock used to build the statues actually came from quarries 420 miles away in Cairo, Egypt and was transported overland to the final site, a remarkable feat of engineering for that time.

Using neutron activation analysis, Asaro and his co-workers showed that the stone from Aswan was only used to repair the upper half of the northern statue, which had been knocked over in an earthquake about 27 BCE and reconstructed by Roman emperor Septimius Severus about 197 CE.

However, in 1977, Asaro and his colleague Helen Michel used neutron activation analysis to determine that the zinc content in the composition of the plate was too high and the impurity levels too low to come from techniques of sixteenth century English for working with brass.

[9][10][page needed][11] Asaro is best known as the nuclear chemist who discovered the iridium anomaly that led to the development of the asteroid impact theory to explain the mass extinctions, including the demise of the dinosaurs, that occurred at the end of the geological era known as the Cretaceous period in Earth's history.

In the March 5, 2010, edition of Science, an international panel of experts in geology, paleontology and related fields published the results of their exhaustive review of the data, ruling in favor of the asteroid theory.

[16] In 2006, Asaro transferred archives of his work to the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center with the request that they transcribe these data and share them with the scientific community.

[18] The knowledge and experiences gained through working with these records has been used to recommend best practices to modern laboratories producing similar data to ensure that they remain useful into the future.