pXRF (Other Keyword)
26-50 (58 Records)
This multi-disciplinary study of glass from Karanis, Egypt combines archaeological, chemical compositional data, ethnoarchaeology, and historical insights to assess how objects were valued in the ancient world. The the selection of raw materials is investigated through onsite portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry analysis of recently excavated Karanis glass dating primarily to the late Roman period (4th-6th centuries CE). Quantitative analysis of these data informed by pXRF and...
Households and Empire: A pXRF Study of Metal Artifacts from Cerro la Virgen (2016)
The Chimú Empire controlled much of the Peruvian North Coast during the Late Intermediate Period (1000-1476 AD), including the hinterland site of Cerro la Virgen (CLV). Previous research suggests that CLV could be viewed as a facet of the Chimú plan for the organization of rural areas, a plan that included controlled access to water, the restriction of rural settlement, and agricultural management through rural administrative centers. This model for local rule ultimately suggests that resources...
Improving pXRF Estimates of Elemental Composition for Lead-Glazed Earthenware (2016)
Lead glazing was a significant technological innovation to pottery production, increasing the strength and imperviousness of earthenwares. These ceramics are common components of archaeological assemblages in many parts of the world. They are known to have traveled long distances, thus determining their provenience has great interpretive potential. While studies analyzing archaeological ceramics with non-destructive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) have multiplied rapidly in recent years,...
Indian Creek Revisited: The Use of Portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) Soil Analysis to Characterize Areas Without Artifacts (2015)
This paper reports on a preliminary study assessing the applicability for pXRF analysis of soils within a Pre-Columbian context. The data generated for this discussion comes from the site of Indian Creek, Antigua; an Amerindian site bound by a series of middens forming a concentric ring around the perimeter of the site. This settlement is the result of over 1300 years of continuous occupation, before it was abandoned just prior to contact in the New World. Aside from the excavations conducted...
Integrated Archaeometric and Spatial Analysis: A Preliminary Report on Spatial Data Mining in the pre-Hispanic Central Andes of Peru (2015)
The Gallinazo and Mochica of northern coastal Peru lived side-by-side for centuries. However, the nature of their social interrelationships (one or two ethnic or social groups) is a continuing topic of debate as such complexity is one of the hallmarks of pre-Hispanic central Andean civilization. How can meaningful dimensions of social differentiation and complex social interrelationships be elucidated through archaeological investigation? To answer this question, we present our integrated...
Interpreting Ecclesiastical Mobility: A pXRF Study of Medieval Gravestones in Ireland (2015)
Western Ireland’s early medieval (700-1200 AD) landscape—dotted with stone cemeteries and structures—provides an ideal setting for studying ecclesiastical lifeways through methods of raw materials characterization. Archaeological analyses and oral history suggest that people living in small ecclesiastical communities between the 6th and the 12th centuries exchanged and transported gravestones. While traditional archaeological analysis of the shape and stylistic design of gravestones from five...
Island Obsidian Distribution and Socioeconomic Patterns in Prehistoric Sicily and the South-Central Mediterranean (2016)
Sicily is located in between two small island sources of obsidian, Lipari and Pantelleria. Their use of obsidian starting in the Early Neolithic (ca. 6000-6500 BC) is well documented, but only over the last few years have intensive studies been done on the specific sources and subsources of artifact assemblages from many museums and superintendencies. With the use of a portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer, the specific source of many hundreds of obsidian artifacts from sites in Sicily...
Materials Characterization at the National Museum of the American Indian: (Mostly) Non-destructive Analysis (2018)
The use of portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) for in-situ elemental analysis is becoming widespread in archaeology and cultural heritage studies. Archaeologists and conservators routinely use pXRF instruments in the field and many museums use them in-house for identification of pigments, metals, and inorganic pesticide residues, characterization of minerals and determination of alloy composition. The NMAI Conservation Department has been using pXRF for over fifteen years for a variety of...
Micro analyses of 17th Century adobe bricks from the "new" church at Pecos, New Mexico. (2015)
The clash of Pueblo farmers and Spanish missionaries in central New Mexico marks the transition from prehistoric maize farming to the modern era along the Rio Grande River. The interaction between Native Americans and Spanish was not totally either peaceful or confrontational. The first church, built in the 1620s, was later burned during the Pueblo Revolt when Spanish were forced to leave, then rebuilt when relations improved. Four bricks from the new church (Mission de Nuestra Senora de los...
Not sourcing: prospecting for Khitan/Liao ceramic production locales through the geochemical and mineralogical characterization of Khitan/Liao ceramic assemblages (2017)
Often the use of geochemical and mineralogical techniques to characterize archaeological ceramics is performed with the underlying idea that the goal of the enterprise will be the sourcing of the ceramics to their production locales. However, in many situations this goal may not be achievable due to such factors as a lack of variability in regional geologies or a lack of information on the scale, type and location of ceramic production. This paper looks at one such case from the Chifeng Region,...
Ochre in the desert: Preliminary sourcing and colorimetric results from two Stone Age sites in the central Namib Desert (2016)
Ochre becomes ubiquitous across Southern African archaeological sites beginning in the Middle Stone Age and continuing throughout the Later Stone Age. For the last decade, ochre research has focused upon the utilization of ochre, cognitive implications of its use, and of the ochre assemblages themselves. Recently, a growing number of ochre studies have attempted to source ochre through a variety of analytic techniques. This study attempts to differentiate ochre raw material sources with a novel...
Of Ostrich and Ochre: The application of pXRF to detect experimentally pigmented ostrich eggshell (2017)
Ostrich eggshell (OES) is a somewhat common occurrence in Middle and Later Stone Age archaeological contexts. Ethnographically, OES are known to be used as containers, raw material for bead production, and the egg itself as a valuable food source. Archaeologically, it is difficult to determine which of these potential functions the OES fulfilled. The application of mineral pigment powder to OES may suggest a non-subsistence function for that particular piece. For this study we experimentally...
POLLEN, ORGANIC RESIDUE (FTIR), ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION (Pxrf), AND MACROFLORAL ANALYSIS OF FEATURE FILL SAMPLES FROM SITES STM-034, STM-036, STM-040, STM-045, STM-049 AND STM-060, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA (2015)
The Stateline Solar Farm (SSF) Project Area, located in the Mojave’s Desert’s Ivanpah Valley, San Bernardino County, California, occupies a predominately flat area between several mountain ranges. Lakebed and alluvial fans dating through the Pleistocene as well as a Precambrian outcrop comprise the 6,487 acres encompassed by the project area (Hannah Hicok, personal communication May 6, 2015). During construction monitoring archaeologists located four possible hearths (STM-034, STM-036, STM-040,...
Portable X-ray florescence studies of black-gloss pottery from Monte Pallano (Italy) (2015)
This is an examination of a collection of 200 sherds of black-gloss pottery (a type of fineware that was used for dining and wine consumption from the 5th century B.C.E.-1st century B.C.E ) excavated from the Monte Pallano ridge in the Abruzzo region of eastern Italy. Customarily, pXRF has been used to identify and characterize clay sources for ancient pottery production. In this paper, the elemental composition of the ceramics—measured with a Bruker Tracer III SD pXRF—is analyzed: 1) to...
Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of Copper Trace Element Composition: A Methodological Pilot Study (2015)
Copper artifacts are widely represented in prehistoric sites of eastern North America and their presence in any particular region is often used in reconstructing exchange and social networks. Early interpretations were predicated on assumptions that native copper from which materials derived from the extensive copper deposits in the Lake Superior region. However, as early as 1903, assessment of copper trace element composition has been used to test such hypotheses. A number of methods have...
Portable XRF Analysis of Anthropogenic Soils from the North Coast of Peru: A Comparative Study of Sample Preparation Methods (2016)
The increasing use of portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometers in compositional studies of archaeological materials has led to an ongoing debate over proper use of this equipment, including procedures for sample preparation and homogenization. Due to the diverse nature of archaeological materials, sample preparation methods should be tailored to specific research questions and material types. This study examines the impacts of different sample preparation methods on pXRF analysis of...
A Proposed Methodology for Elemental Analysis using portable X-Ray Fluorescence on Lead (Pb) Projectiles (2018)
As the field of battlefield archaeology continues to evolve, adopting new techniques and technologies, it is important that we as a community strive to collaborate, share, and develop standards for which to compare research. The introduction of pXRF technology to source lead projectiles, differentiating their country of origin by trace elements, was presented in 2014 and created a wave of interest in the technology. Unfortunately, this recent fervor has resulted in projects with varied...
Provenance of archaeological copper alloys by pXRF (2015)
Recently, there has been significant interest in the use of portable x-ray fluorescence devices (pXRF) for cultural materials applications, particularly the non–destructive provenance determination of archaeological materials. Historic copper alloys, typically brasses and bronzes, can often be sourced using elemental analysis to reveal regionally and temporally specific impurities and trace element signatures. We investigate the analytical performance of five different pXRF spectrometers for...
PXRF Analysis of the Pylos Linear B Tablets (2017)
PXRF Analysis of the Pylos Linear B Tablets In 2015 and 2016 I analyzed all of the Mycenaean Linear B clay tablets and sealings from the Palace of Nestor at Pylos for their chemical composition using a portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer. Sealings were used on containers of oil, wine, etc., and on baskets of tablets. Leaf-shaped tablets usually contain one entry or line of information. Page-shaped tablets contain several entries of related information. There are questions that these...
A pXRF Analysis on18th-Century Colonial Redware (2017)
This portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) research addresses questions concerning economic status and procurement strategies through the study of redware ceramics. The use of pXRF is a high-tech, newly emerging analytical technique for archaeologists that provides quantitative data concerning the chemical composition of ceramics. The ceramics were produced by local or regional manufacturers, and this research is a comparative compositional study with collections from several archaeological sites...
pXRF at the Museum: Non-Destructive Elemental Composition Analysis of Collection Objects (2017)
Applications for X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry as an analytical tool in anthropologically related disciplines continue to expand. Museum staff are charged with the amazing, yet daunting, task of housing, preserving, researching, and showcasing our most valued cultural treasures, and this versatile tool can help. As a non-destructive technique for investigating elemental-based aspects of material culture, handheld XRFs are an effective analytical option for museum collections. A handheld XRF...
pXRF meets GIS: A Preliminary Investigation of Spatial Variability in Domestic Ceramics at Songoy-Cojal, north coast, Peru. (2015)
Archaeometric approaches to ceramic analysis allow us to critically examine differences in ceramic manufacture and use. By integrating pXRF methods with spatial analysis, it becomes possible to contextualize such differences. Do elemental and technological differences correspond to distinct ceramic styles? Are these differences spatially meaningful? Attendant to our broader objective investigating Mochica-Gallinazo identity and coexistence at the Songoy-Cojal site complex, Zaña Valley north...
Sourcing the Obsidian from Campanayuq Rumi: Implications for Understanding Chavín Interaction (2015)
Campanayuq Rumi is a large civic-ceremonial center located near Ayacucho in the south-central highlands of Peru. Dating to the late Initial Period (1100-800 BC) and Early Horizon (800-300 BC), Campanayuq Rumi is notable for its close association with the Chavín sphere of interaction. In particular, the site has been considered significant because of its geographical proximity to Quispisisa, the most important obsidian source during the early first millennium BC. Recent excavations at Campanayuq...
Terminal Classic to Early Contact Period Obsidian in the Petén Lakes Region: Inter- and Intra-Site Variation of Raw Materials (2016)
Recently, obsidian studies in the Maya area have benefited from the instrumental sourcing of large samples to reconstruct political and domestic economies. This paper summarizes results of the largest portable x-ray florescence (PXRF) source attribution study of obsidian in the Petén lakes region from the sites of Tayasal and Nixtun-Ch'ich'. Cluster analysis of the chemical profiles of 1,123 obsidian specimens suggests that two sites had varying strategies of procurement that emphasized...
Tracing the movement of Quispisisa obsidian during the Middle Horizon, Peru (2016)
This paper explores variability in the consumption and distribution of obsidian within imperial and local Middle Horizon (AD 600-1000) contexts in order to address regional manifestations of imperial control and the role of resource extraction and regulation within the Wari Empire in Peru. During the Middle Horizon, the Wari Empire expanded and maintained control over the Peruvian Andes, often going to great lengths to import and export critical resources obtained from distant regions throughout...