ICP-MS Investigation of Geochemical Differences Between Archaeological Ceramics from Terrestrial and Submerged Environments, La Altagracia Province, Dominican Republic

Summary

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

Geochemical studies of archaeological ceramics often assume little to no post-depositional change to the makeup of the artifact. This study uses ICP-MS trace element and lead (Pb) stable isotope analysis to investigate how a freshwater submerged depositional environment affects the geochemical signatures of archaeological ceramics. We test the null hypothesis that there is no measurable geochemical difference between ceramic assemblages from underwater cavern sites and assemblages from terrestrial sites in the same region (La Altagracia Province, Dominican Republic). Results indicate statistically significant (P<0.01) variation between assemblages in the concentrations of ten trace elements (V, Cu, Zn, As, Sr, Zr, Cs, Ta, Tl, U), leading to a rejection of the null hypothesis. Results also show a wider range of Pb isotope ratios in ceramics recovered from submerged sites than terrestrial sites, leading to further investigation of regional Pb isotope variation. These results suggest that ceramic artifacts recovered from underwater sites may be unsuitable for inclusion in comparative geochemical studies that assume the geochemical fingerprint of a ceramic artifact is a direct proxy for that of the original vessel. Results of this study will impact sampling design of future ceramic analyses and contribute to understandings of underwater archaeological site formation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40450.0