Seeing red: an analysis of archeological hematite in east central Missouri

Pierce, Daniel E.; Wright, Patti J.; Popelka-Filcoff, Rachel S.

doi:10.1007/s12520-019-00984-4

Cited by 8 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This list is quite different from the list of trace elements quantified by ICP-MS that were used to discriminate the geological shale samples, which were As, Ba, Cr, Sb, and V [28]. Moreover, it is quite a low number of trace elements for the discrimination of geological ochre sources in general [18,19,38,39,56,[58][59][60][61]63,64,85,122]. Nonetheless, the discrimination between two sources based on a few trace elements is possible as soon as these sources are characterized by consistent and significant differences.…”

Section: Consequences For Archeological Inferencesmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…In parallel, the whole range of elemental analyses used in geochemistry has been used to characterize ochre materials [17][18][19]36,38,39,[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65]. The main methods encountered are X-ray fluorescence (XRF, portable or in laboratory), PIXE (particle-induced Xray emission), inductively coupled plasma and atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), neutron activation (NAA), or inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS, with laser ablation, LA-ICP-MS).…”

Section: Choosing the Dedicated Methods: An Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several authors employed log-ratios to iron, following the pioneering work of Popelka-Filcoff and colleagues [56,117]. The main advantages of this data transformation are discussed elsewhere [17,19,39,56,64]. Their interest may however vary according to the choice of the elements that are included in the statistical analysis.…”

Section: Ochre Provenance Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nonetheless, some studies where this method was tested found that no elements were positively correlated with iron when all the sources were included in the process [17,19]. Another limit of this method, which may also explain the first limit discussed, is that iron oxides with high Fe-content are not directly comparable with iron-bearing rocks, as the latter have significantly lower iron contents [17,64]. The use of log-transformed Fe-ratios does not provide a sufficient work-around that smooths the large variations in iron between them.…”

Section: Ochre Provenance Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This might be due to geochemical trends that are not entirely understood yet, such as non-linear element migrations, or recrystallization above a threshold of iron concentration, etc. Context-dependent solutions were developed when these limits were encountered [17,19,64].…”

Section: Ochre Provenance Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Invasive and Non-Invasive Analyses of Ochre and Iron-Based Pigment Raw Materials: A Methodological Perspective

Dayet

2021

Minerals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Naturally occurring and deeply coloured iron-bearing materials were exploited very early on by human populations. The characterization of these materials has proven useful for addressing several archaeological issues, such as the study of technical behaviors, group mobility, and the reconstruction of cultural dynamics. However, this work poses some critical methodological questions. In this paper, we will review ochre studies by focusing on the analytical methods employed, the limits of non-invasive methods, as well as examples of some quality research addressing specific issues (raw material selection and provenience, heat treatment). We will then present a methodological approach that aims to identify the instrumental limits and the post-depositional alterations that significantly impact the results of the non-invasive analysis of cohesive ochre fragments from Diepkloof rock Shelter, South Africa. We used ochre materials recuperated in both archaeological and geological contexts, and we compared non-invasive surface analyses by XRD, scanning electron microscopy coupled with dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDXS), and particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) with invasive analysis of powder pellets and sections from the same samples. We conclude that non-invasive SEM-EDXS and PIXE analyses provide non-representative results when the number of measurements is too low and that post-depositional alterations cause significant changes in the mineralogical and major element composition at the surface of archaeological pieces. Such biases, now identified, must be taken into account in future studies in order to propose a rigorous framework for developing archaeological inferences.

show abstract