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Sourcing Olive Jars Using U‐Pb Ages of Detrital Zircons: A Study of 16th Century Olive Jars Recovered from the Solomon Islands
Author(s) -
Kelloway Sarah J.,
Craven Steven,
Pecha Mark,
Dickinson William R.,
Gibbs Martin,
Ferguson Timothy,
Glascock Michael D.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1520-6548
pISSN - 0883-6353
DOI - 10.1002/gea.21462
Subject(s) - provenance , pottery , batholith , geology , archaeology , cretaceous , cenozoic , population , archean , mesozoic , geography , paleontology , demography , structural basin , sociology , tectonics
We present U‐Pb ages of zircons extracted from olive jars recovered from two sites associated with Alvaro de Mendaña y Neyra's colonising expedition to the Solomon Islands, c . 1595–1596 A.D. The olive jars were previously associated with Panamanian and Peruvian origins based on petrological and geochemical studies. To further define provenance, 143 zircons were extracted from five olive jar sherds, analyzed and dated. The resultant U‐Pb ages range from the Archaean to the Cenozoic (2977.2 ± 29.0–3.2 ± 4.0 Ma), but the dominance of Cretaceous and Palaeogene ages (∼ 90% of the total age population is between ∼ 145 and 23 Ma) supports a Peruvian origin based on comparative geology, with the Coastal Batholith of Peru a prime candidate area of ceramic production. These results are significant for the characterization of 16th Century Peruvian‐made pottery and our understanding of its production and trade.