Application of X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy to provenance studies of Algerian archaeological pottery

Abstract

The North African regions boast a multimillenary tradition of pottery production that represents a decisive progress in all societies. In this paper, we present the analysis of several fragments of pottery dating from the Middle Ages and collected in the archaeological site of Gouraya in Béjaïa (Algeria). Energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence measurements were performed to obtain the elemental composition of the clays and to attempt a classification of the samples through multivariate analysis methods, connecting them to the archaeological information about the sites. Hierarchical clusters analysis (HCA) identified two possible different groups, related to different production sites, even if only one source of clay seem to be used, consistently with the geological contest. Based on the results, a tentative provenance interpretation could be proposed on historical bases. We put in place a strategy that made it possible to perform provenance studies respecting sample integrity as we aim to extend our research also to integer and well‐preserved object from museum, to create a database for Algerian production of in the Middle Ages.

Supervised learning algorithms as a tool for archaeology: Classification of ceramic samples described by chemical element concentrations

“…The element concentrations employed for calculation presented in this work have been obtained through non-destructive quantitative X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, exploiting a portable spectrometer (Bonizzoni et al, 2010); this technique has proved to be useful as a first check for the presence of the same raw materials when coupled with multivariate statistical treatment of data (Romano et al, 2006;Padilla et al, 2006;Idjouadiene et al, 2019), making analyses possible for a wide range of materials even when sampling is forbidden (Fermo et al, 2016;Galli et al, 2011;Veneranda et al, 2022). XRF measurements were performed on selected areas on untreated ceramics with a portable spectrometer (Assing Lithos 3000) equipped with a low power X-ray tube with Mo anode and a Peltier cooled Si-PIN detector; the working conditions were 25 kV and 0.3 mA with a 500 s acquisition time.…”

FUXYA2020: A Low-Cost Homemade Portable EDXRF Spectrometer for Cultural Heritage Applications

“…The X-ray source used is the MINI-X2 X-ray tube (Amptek, Bedford, MA, USA) with a maximum power of 4 W (50 kV, 200 µA) and a transmission rhodium anode. The choice of this material for the anode was made for several reasons: the characteristic lines of the K series of rhodium are present at relatively high energies and produce very definite Compton and Rayleigh diffusions that can be useful for the quantitative analysis of light matrix materials [3,6,41,42]; rhodium is rarely present in cultural heritage materials and this decreases the possibility of interference with the sample. Indeed, when choosing the anode, it is of the utmost importance to consider that the element of the anode cannot be evaluated in the samples, and that the anode line may interfere with the fluorescence line of the element of interest present in the sample.…”

“…Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) is a very suitable analysis method for the examination of cultural heritage materials and is widely used, thanks to its relative straightforwardness of use and its totally non-destructive character, allowing for analysis without any sample preparation. EDXRF has numerous applications in this field, as it is able to detect elements from sodium to uranium, and in certain cases can go down to carbon [1], moreover the data treatment (e.g., qualitative analysis, PCA [2,3], semiquantitative analysis [4][5][6], quantitative analysis) makes this technique suitable to answer numerous questions. Thus, EDXRF is commonly used to perform provenance studies on ceramics, coins and glass [3,[7][8][9], to evaluate corrosion processes on metals [10,11], find restorations in paintings [12][13][14] or fake objects [15], or to identify worn out pigmentation in ancient polychromies [16][17][18][19].…”

“…EDXRF has numerous applications in this field, as it is able to detect elements from sodium to uranium, and in certain cases can go down to carbon [1], moreover the data treatment (e.g., qualitative analysis, PCA [2,3], semiquantitative analysis [4][5][6], quantitative analysis) makes this technique suitable to answer numerous questions. Thus, EDXRF is commonly used to perform provenance studies on ceramics, coins and glass [3,[7][8][9], to evaluate corrosion processes on metals [10,11], find restorations in paintings [12][13][14] or fake objects [15], or to identify worn out pigmentation in ancient polychromies [16][17][18][19]. These are just few examples of potential applications.…”