Investigating Geological Sources and Sociotechnical Dimensions of Mica Pottery Inclusions from Late Bronze Age (LBA, 1500–1100 BC) Fortresses in Northern Armenia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

For 25 years, the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies project (Project ArAGATS) has focused on the origins, regional-scale organization, and sociopolitical dynamics among LBA hillforts in northern Armenia. This paper presents preliminary results from a pilot study of mica samples based on petrographic and elemental analyses undertaken by Project ArAGATS, Armenia’s Institute of Geological Sciences, and the EAF. The goals of research were to (1) establish the viability of LA-ICP-MS as a technique for identifying the source of mica pottery inclusions, and (2) study the sociotechnical context of mica’s circulation and incorporation into LBA ceramics. A prior ceramic circulation study in Armenia’s Tsaghkahovit Plain based on INAA revealed that the small LBA fortress of Gegharot, host to a suite of several religious shrines, benefited from asymmetrical flows of pottery (and other goods) from surrounding sites. This center of ritual practice also sits on a natural source of mica, whose signature sparkling flakes, our data suggest, were transported and added to ceramics 12 km across the plain. We present LA-ICP-MS and optical petrography results from regional mica sources linked to different metamorphic and magmatic rocks and explore the sociotechnical implications of mica inclusions as materialization of ritual practice.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38887.0