Method for characterizing a material comprising the following steps: a) arranging an object made of the material to be characterized, a collimated ionizing photon source having a collimation axis (10.2) and a collimated spectrometric detector having a collimation axis (11.2), such that the two collimation axes (10.2, 11.2) are secant in the material of the object and define a scattering depth (P1, P2) in the material of the object and a scatter angle (θ) different to zero, b) irradiating the object with ionizing photons generated by the source and acquiring, by means of the detector, a first energy spectrum corresponding to scattering of a first ionizing photon flux (X 1 (E 1)) at a first scattering depth according to said scattering angle (θ) and a second energy spectrum corresponding to scattering of a second ionizing photon flux (X 2 (E 1)) at a second scattering depth according to said scattering angle (θ), the ionizing photons passing through the material by paths (l bef, l aft) before and after scattering such that the ratio of the paths (ε) before and after scattering, called asymmetry factor, is substantially constant from one acquisition to another, c) determining a combined linear attenuation function (μ'(E 1)) based on the two energy spectra after scattering (X 1 E 1), X 2 (E 1)) and the path difference (l aft2 - l aft1 or l bef2 - l bef1) travelled by the ionizing photons before and after scattering from one acquisition to another, said method being characterized in that it comprises the following steps: d) selecting in this combined linear attenuation function a plurality of energy ranges (BE, HE.1, HE.2), e) calculating in each energy range a representative quantity (η, η') of the combined linear attenuation function, f) estimating on the basis of at least two of these quantities, at least one physical characteristic of the material to be characterized, by means of a comparison with the same quantities obtained using known materials. a) arranging an object made of the material to be characterized, a collimated ionizing photon source having a collimation axis (10.2) and a collimated spectrometric detector having a collimation axis (11.2), such that the two collimation axes (10.2, 11.2) are secant in the material of the object and define a scattering depth (P1, P2) in the material of the object and a scatter angle (θ) different to zero, b) irradiating the object with ionizing photons generated by the source and acquiring, by means of the detector, a first energy spectrum corresponding to scattering of a first ionizing photon flux (X 1 (E 1)) at a first scattering depth according to said scattering angle (θ) and a second energy spectrum corresponding to scattering of a second ionizing photon flux (X 2 (E 1)) at a second scattering depth according to said scattering angle (θ), the ionizing photons passing through the material by paths (l bef, l aft) before and after scattering such that the ratio of the paths (ε) before and after scattering, called asymmetry factor, is substantially constant from one acquisition to another, c) determining a combined linear attenuation function (μ'(E 1)) based on the two energy spectra after scattering (X 1 E 1), X 2 (E 1)) and the path difference (l aft2 - l aft1 or l bef2 - l bef1) travelled by the ionizing photons before and after scattering from one acquisition to another, said method being characterized in that it comprises the following steps: d) selecting in this combined linear attenuation function a plurality of energy ranges (BE, HE.1, HE.2), e) calculating in each energy range a representative quantity (η, η') of the combined linear attenuation function, f) estimating on the basis of at least two of these quantities, at least one physical characteristic of the material to be characterized, by means of a comparison with the same quantities obtained using known materials.