No Smoking Gun: The Potential and Limitations of Isotopic Sourcing of Archaeological Cinnabar in the Central Andean Region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Identifying spatial patterns and diachronic changes in the intensity and range of the circulation of goods can provide crucial insights into shifting economic, social, and political organization of ancient societies. As such, archaeologists interested in identifying evidence of long-distance interaction in the past have increasingly turned to geochemical methods to trace the movement of nonlocal resources. In the archaeological record of the Central Andean region, cinnabar pigment is one of a few notable nonperishable resources with a limited number of geological sources. Drawing from a wide range of specimens from both museum collections and scientifically excavated archaeological materials, we explore a novel, multi-method approach for sourcing cinnabar ore, comparing isotopic ratios detected with MC-ICP-MS for mercury (Hg) and IR-MS for sulfur (S). Our results offer a cautionary tale for the use of sulfur isotopes in geochemical sourcing. Although we highlight the challenges and limitations of MC-ICP-MS analyses of mercury isotopes, we confirm that this method offers some promise for sourcing studies in the Andes and beyond.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39079.0