Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: XRF/pXRF (Other Keyword)
126-143 (143 Records)
This is an abstract from the "2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past 15-20 years, archaeological chemistry has moved largely from centralized laboratories of interdisciplinary expertise to decentralized laboratories where expertise often times is lacking. This shift is most pronounced in the widespread adoption and use of inexpensive, compact, highly portable XRF...
Toxic Taphonomy (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Taphonomy in Focus: Current Approaches to Site Formation and Social Stratigraphy" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We are living through an era that has been described as “the apotheosis of waste,” a globe brimming with greenhouse gasses, mountains of tailings, lagoons of pig-shit, and hangars of acidic sludge. The massive scale and persistence of industrial waste has not only transformed the air, water, and soil that...
Tracking Quartz: A Methodological Approach to an Elusive Type of Sources Using Chemical Characterization According to Their Geological Origin (2018)
In the archaeology of the Sierras Centrales of Argentina more than one hundred years ago studies reported the presence of a lithic technology centered on the use of quartz as a predominant raw material. However, little effort has been made to try to characterize its chemical composition so as to understand the circuits of mobility or the exchange networks in the archaeological sites of the region. The results of provenance studies have allowed us to advance in a geochemical characterization of...
Translucent but Opaque: Obsidian in the American Southwest and the Mesoamerican (dis)Connection (2019)
This is an abstract from the "2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The movement of people, objects, and ideas between the American Southwest/Northwest Mexico (SW/NW) and Mesoamerica is one of the most enduring and debated research topics in American archaeology. Pueblo and Mesoamerican groups prominently used obsidian for hunting, warfare, and ceremony, but is there Mesoamerican...
Understanding Pottery Production at El Campanario (Huarmey-Peru) through Ceramic Paste Analysis and pXRF (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Scaling Potting Networks: Recent Contributions from Ceramic Petrography " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The present research focuses on the strategies in the procurement of raw material used in the production of pottery at the El Campanario site during the beginning of the Late Intermediate period (AD 1150–1280). The manufacture of pottery occurred within the domestic areas at this site and while domestic pottery was...
Understanding the Landscape and Material Sources through Community Partnership in Abiquiú, New Mexico (2018)
This paper aims to discuss how the success of community partnership has led to an understanding of the way people moved across the landscape in the past. Situated in northern New Mexico, the Pueblo de Abiquiú contains a rich history that dates back at least into 2,800 – 4,000 BP (Before Present). Using portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, obsidian artifacts found at the pueblo suggests that groups are bringing obsidian from at least three known local sources. However, there is an...
Unearthing Earthen Architecture: A Geoarchaeological and Environmental Perspective (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Geoarchaeology and Environmental Archaeology Perspectives on Earthen-Built Constructions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation combines the findings of two distinct studies focusing on earthen building materials in different border regions, shedding light on the evolution of earthen architectural practices. The first study delves into the geoarchaeological analysis of earthen materials and...
Unsung Heroes of Cahokian Cuisine: The Materials and Methods for Nixtamalization in the American Bottom (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. People who rely on corn for significant portions of their diets must process it to improve its nutritional quality, or risk severe malnutrition. A common method historically employed throughout Mesoamerica and North America consisted of soaking corn kernels in an alkaline solution created from wood ash or burned limestone, a technique referred to as...
Use of X-Ray Fluorescence for Elemental Analysis and Resolution of Commingled Remains with the Arch Street Project (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Arch Street Project: Multidisciplinary Research of a Philadelphia Cemetery" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During early excavations of the Arch Street Project collection, remains were commingled. Reassembling commingled remains is a long, difficult, and technically advanced process that can take years if not decades to complete. This study uses XRF on eight individuals from the Arch Street Project to assess the...
The Use-Life of Spanish Colonial Metal Artifacts from Carnué, New Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The acquisition of metal tools on the Spanish Colonial frontier of New Mexico was a rare occurrence, but it is an activity we may be able to better understand through analysis of their production, modification, and utilization as well as sourcing their elemental makeup through XRF. Metals of various types were utilized by settlers for agriculture, cooking,...
Using XRF Analysis on Historic Choctaw Ceramics from Chickasawhay Creek, Kemper County, MS (2018)
In partnership with Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research (TVAR), this poster presents the results of an x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) analysis of ceramics recovered from historic Choctaw (Late 17th - Early 19th century) contexts at sites (22KE630 and 22KE718) located along Chickasawhay Creek, Kemper County, MS. In the fall of 2017, a sample of ceramic sherds was selected for chemical sourcing at the University of Alabama. XRF was used to non-destructively identify ceramic...
The Utility of Portable XRF for Preliminary Site Prospection at Contaminated Colonial Period Mining Sites (Puno, Peru) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Field portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) has seen an increase in use for testing potentially toxic levels of heavy metals in modern mining and industrial waste sites. Understanding the spatial variation of pollutants in soil is necessary for identifying proper prevention measures for soil contamination and long-term effects on human health. While...
Variation in Obsidian Source Consumption within the Kingdom of Piedras Negras (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Obsidian Studies of the Old and New Worlds" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than a decade of archaeological research has characterized the political landscape of the middle Usumacinta river valley as a tense political rivalry between the Classic period Maya (250 – 900 C.E.) kingdoms. Recent archaeological work in the kingdoms of Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan has sought to unravel how the internal...
Very Small Rocks: Exploring Specimen Size Limits in Trace-Element Analysis of Obsidian Flaked Stone with Portable XRF (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists continue to push the limits of nondestructive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis in efforts to geochemically source small obsidian artifacts. Building on numerous prior investigations, this study examines a statistically large sample of unmodified obsidian flakes to better define the size threshold for acceptable precision and accuracy and to...
WDXRF Analyses and Understanding Variability in Time and Space: Trade in the Complex Society Island Chiefdoms (2019)
This is an abstract from the "2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Our WDXRF sourcing program of geological and archaeological specimens (n=177) from the Society Islands, outlines the dynamics of inter- and intra-archipelago exchange over an 800 year period. Adzes from 21 sources were identified. Those traded in from the Marquesas Islands, an over 1,400 km voyage, are found with low...
Where-felines? An XRF-Based Sourcing of Tiwanaku's Chachapuma Sculptures (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Culture Contact and Diversity in Southern Peru" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Turnovers in political and religious authority in the ancient Titicaca Basin correspond with significant, intentional shifts in material procurement practices. During the 5th century AD, the developing Tiwanaku elite asserted a new ideological hegemony through a novel monumental and iconographic tradition. Tiwanaku masons also...
XRF Analysis of North Carolina Piedmont Ceramics to Locate Source of Production and Trade at Rural Plantation Sites (2018)
Little documentation exists of the trade exchange occurring in the central Piedmont during the 18th and 19th century at wealthy plantation sites or at surrounding sites of lower economic status. In this historical archaeology research, I focus on understanding the socio-economic patterns of settlers in the more rural areas of the region at two plantation sites and wasters from a local kiln site from same time period. Using pXRF data of lead glazed earthenware I attempt to map ceramic regional...
XRF and Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of Pigments Used in Middle Horizon Polychrome Ceramics from Cochabamba, Bolivia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of a combined XRF and Raman spectroscopic analysis of pigments used in the production of Middle Horizon ceramics from Arani, Cochabamba, Bolivia, that are currently housed at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The two central questions that this analysis investigates are (1) which of these materials were produced in...