Application of PIXE for the determination of transition elements in the grouping study of archaeological clay potteries

Abstract

Trace element concentrations play an important role in grouping and provenance studies of archaeological artifacts. Particle‐inducedX‐ray emission (PIXE) using low energy proton beams (1.5 and 3 MeV) from a tandem particle accelerator was used to analyze the ancient clay potteries collected from an ancient Buddhist site in India. Concentrations of 13 elements, including eight transition elements, were determined. The concentrations of transition elements were used for the grouping study by statistical cluster analysis according to the similar and dissimilar elemental distribution within the samples. Two International Atomic Energy Agency Reference Materials (RMs) were analyzed to validate the PIXE method. Two samples were analyzed by both PIXE and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) as a part of quality assurance. Grouping results were used for preliminary provenance study. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Kynos Through Time: Decorated Pottery Sherds from Eleven Strata of a Homeric Greek Site

“…Yet, the identified elements are common minor ingredients of natural clays and thus routinely included in ancient pottery trace element analyses. 16,32,33 Moreover, the trace element levels of clays are strongly related to their provenance, 16,17 and thus variations in the normalized peak intensities may be regarded as reflecting the use of clays of different origin; hence, pertinent correlations were explored in the case of the Kynos samples.…”

Provenance determination of prehistorical pottery from Oshima Island belonging to Izu islands (Tokyo, Japan) using X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry

“…Figure 7 shows the clustering dendrogram. Grouping the clusters at 15 of squared Euclidean distance, the dendrogram roughly reveals three main groups: Group 1 consists of 15 designed potteries (SMT1-4, 6,9,18,19,21,22,[25][26][27]32, and 41) and 17 undesigned potteries (SMT05, 07, 08, 10-13, 17, 20, 23, 24, 28, 29, 31, 33, 39, and 40); Group 2 consists of five undesigned potteries (SMT34-38); and Group 3 consists of four undesigned potteries (SMT14- 16 and 30). This classification has correlations with the PCA score plots ( Figure 5): Group 1, consists of groups C, D, and E of PCA; Group 2, equal to group B of PCA; and Group 3, equal to Group A of PCA.…”

“…The elemental composition of pottery is highly useful for identifying its provenance via instrumental analyses, for example, atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS; e.g., Rotunno, Sabbatini, and Corrente), inductively coupled plasma‐atomic emission spectrometry (ICP‐AES; e.g., Mannino, and Orecchio), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS; e.g., Braekmans, Degryse, Neyt, Waelkens, and Poblome), instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA; e.g., Choi, Yang, Gilstrap, Glascock, and Cho), particle‐induced X‐ray emission analysis (PIXE; e.g., Dasari, Acharya, Ray, and Das), and X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry (e.g., Princé, Vekemans, Vandenabeele, Haerinck, and Overlaet). In these techniques, XRF is routinely employed for the determination of major and minor elements in solid and powdered samples in many laboratories.…”

Chemical and mineralogical characterization of Aguada Portezuelo pottery from Catamarca, north‐western Argentina: PIXE, XRD and SEM‐EDS studies applied to surface pre‐ and post‐firing paints, slips and pastes

“…; Dasari et al . ). Nowadays, the advances in the characterization methodologies are centred in their application to areas with specific limitations, such as archaeometry.…”

“…From its beginning in the 1970s, ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques have been successfully applied to study historical and cultural objects; and since the 1990s they have been systematically used for material analysis (e.g., Ruvalcaba-Sil and Demortier 1997;Neelmeijer et al 2000;Olsson et al 2001;Ruvalcaba-Sil 2005;Hall 2006; Rizzuto et al 2007Rizzuto et al , 2014Rivero-Torres et al 2008;Abd El Aal et al 2009;Grassi et al 2009;Poupeau et al 2010;Lima et al 2011;Gajić-Kvaščev et al 2012;Ikeoka et al 2013;Šmit et al 2013;Calligaro et al 2015;Pappalardo et al 2015Pappalardo et al , 2016Santos et al 2015;Dasari et al 2017). Nowadays, the advances in the characterization methodologies are centred in their application to areas with specific limitations, such as archaeometry.…”