NSF Award
0002682
With National Science Foundation support Dr. Frank Asaro and his colleagues will continue to develop and test the x-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique for ceramic analysis. XRF, in common with several other approaches, determines the abundance of trace elements present in ceramics and such data are extremely important to archaeological researchers. Trace element frequencies are set by both the clay used to manufacture a vessel as well as the tempering material included and through analysis of relative abundances it is often possible to establish the presence of "wares" - groups of material which share a common fabric and thus should be classed together. It is also sometimes possible to trace specific wares back to their point of origin through comparison with geological collections of clay raw material. Through sourcing studies and analysis of ceramics from large numbers of sites archaeologists can gain insight into the organization of ceramic production and trade. The movement of ceramics also sheds light on economic and political organization. Because ceramics played such a crucial role in many prehistoric societies and because it is well preserved and abundant in many archaeological sites, it provides a central focus of archaeological attention.<br/><br/>Although XRF is not widely used for trace element studies, its potential is great. Its cost is relatively low and relatively little sample time is required. Were it developed to the level of accuracy of other techniques it would greatly facilitate archaeologists' practical access to trace element data. In this NSF award, Dr. Asaro and his colleagues will pursue several goals. They will work to improve the technique itself and focus on increasing the precision of measurement for a number of elements, especially Fe and lower Z elements. They shall use pottery groups from archaeological sites in the Galilee and Yucatan and raw materials from both areas as test cases and apply both XRA and INAA techniques. Compositional data will be evaluated using a battery of statistical methods. It will be determined if high-precision XRF or INAA, or both methods together are capable of distinguishing closely similar pottery compositional groups from individual sites in these two diverse areas.
