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Strontium isotope analysis in ancient glass from South Asia using portable laser ablation sampling
Author(s) -
Seman S.,
Dussubieux L.,
Cloquet C.,
Pryce T. O.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
archaeometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-4754
pISSN - 0003-813X
DOI - 10.1111/arcm.12618
Subject(s) - isotope , laser ablation , strontium , thermal ionization mass spectrometry , isotopes of strontium , provenance , analytical chemistry (journal) , sampling (signal processing) , geology , isotope analysis , mineralogy , stable isotope ratio , dissolution , mass spectrometry , laser , materials science , radiochemistry , chemistry , geochemistry , ionization , environmental chemistry , chromatography , optics , ion , physics , oceanography , organic chemistry , detector , quantum mechanics
In order to carry out strontium (Sr) isotope analysis, glass artefacts from South Asia were sampled with portable laser ablation (pLA), a relatively novel sampling technique that leaves damage invisible to the naked eye. Subsequently, thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) was used to obtain Sr isotope ratios after sample dissolution and separation. In this study, the goal was twofold: to determine whether the measurements of Sr isotope ratios were impacted by using a portable laser as a sample tool; and to assess the pertinence of using Sr isotope ratios to provenance Indian glass. Despite a deterioration in the precision of the measurement of the Sr isotope ratios for artefacts sampled with pLA compared with the traditional sampling method, the Sr isotope ratios of certain Indian glass are so different that this does not affect their separation but a comparison of data sets obtained using standard methods and pLA might be challenging.