Premium
Correlation between petrography, NAA, and ICP analyses: Application to early bronze Egyptian pottery from Canaan
Author(s) -
Porat Naomi,
Yellin Joseph,
HellerKallai Lisa,
Halicz Ludwik
Publication year - 1991
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.3340060202
Subject(s) - petrography , pottery , geology , quartz , mineralogy , archaeology , neutron activation analysis , geochemistry , chemistry , geography , paleontology , radiochemistry
Under favorable circumstances petrographic studies supported by chemical analysis using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) suffice to establish the provenience of pottery. A case in point is Egyptian‐style pottery of Early Bronze Age found in Canaan. The pottery was divided into three groups according to four criteria determined by thin section analysis supplemented by X‐ray diffraction: sorting and volume of silt‐sized quartz, heavy minerals, the amount of carbonates in the matrix, and the firing temperature. Chemical analyses confirmed the classification. The source materials inferred for the three groups are Nile muds, Egyptian marly sediments, and local loess. Although the chemical analyses obtained by ICP and neutron activation analysis (NAA) were compatible, the existing database for NAA cannot be used indiscriminately. However, for provenience studies based on mineralogical and petrographic data, knowledge of the geology of the potential source areas can replace an extensive database.