Validity of “off-the-shelf” handheld portable XRF for sourcing Near Eastern obsidian chip debris

Preliminary ethnoarchaeological research on modern animal husbandry in Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan: Integrating animal, plant and environmental data

“…Studying the formation histories of the dung deposits and their archaeological identification and significance Macphail and Goldberg (1985), Canti (1998), Canti (1999 Charles (1998), Charles et al (1998), Forbes (1998), Jones (1998), Valamoti (2013) Secondary product use -dung as building material and source of fuel Watson (1979), Kramer (1982), Miller and Smart (1984), Miller (1996), Matthews et al (1997), Anderson and Ertug-Yaras (1998), Reddy (1999), Sillar (1999), Matthews (2008) results, and there is much scepticism over analytical performance (Frahm 2013;Frahm and Doonan 2013). Inter-instrument performance of pXRF equipment has proved that between different instruments statistically identical results are not produced (Goodale et al 2012).…”

Ethno-geochemical and Phytolith Studies of Activity Related Patterns: A Case Study from Al Ma’tan, Jordan

“…Undoubtedly, more precise and accurate concentration results could have been obtained by using a laboratory-based instrument but this would have greatly increased costs both in terms of time and money (Frahm 2013;Frahm and Doonan 2013;Speakman and Shackley 2013). We found that in situ pXRF was adequate for our needs and we were able to see relative differences between certain elements within our samples both in terms of elevations and depletions from the natural control samples.…”

“…There are numerous highlighted limitations, such as low precision, variable analytical accuracy, lack of instrument calibration and data correction. Also ignorance of the effects of surface morphology and difficulties with quantification due to a lack of appropriate standards can all negatively impact results ( Goodale et al 2012;Frahm 2013). When compared with laboratory-based XRF, the results have been found to be comparable for some elements (e.g.…”

“…However, while ICP-MS is a versatile technique that can achieve limits of detection (LODs) many orders of magnitude lower than XRF, samples must be in liquid form, which often requires acid digestion and laborious sample preparations. While precision and accuracy using handheld analysers are not as great as with benchtop instruments (Craig et al 2007;Frahm 2013;Piercey and Devine 2014), pXRF offers researchers the opportunity to gain readings in the field, alleviating the need for sample export which is becoming increasingly problematic in areas of southwest Asia, and can also be used as a prospection tool to select specific samples which, if promising, can be chosen for analysis using benchtop XRF or ICP-MS if more precise and accurate readings are needed.…”

Relaciones Cerámicas Y Sociales Entre San Pedro De Atacama Y El Loa Superior Durante El Período Intermedio Tardío a Través Del Análisis De Fluorescencia De Rayos X Portátil

“…Sin embargo, durante más de cinco años, tenemos resultados importantes de investigaciones de obsidiana y cerámica con instrumentos portátiles (Williams- Thorpe et al 1999;Jia et al 2010;Forster et al 2011;Sheppard et al 2011;Speakman et al 2011;Goodale et al 2012;Mitchell et al 2012;Frahm 2013;. Estos estudios mostraron que el FRXp ha podido identificar los mismos agrupamientos que otros métodos (a veces con distintos elementos diagnósticos), y que estos grupos tienen valor arqueológico interpretativo, que la consistencia interna de los instrumentos ofrece un nivel importante de confiabilidad en los datos y, como ya veremos, el uso de estándares demuestra que FRX portátil puede confirmar resultados precisos obtenidos con otros instrumentos.…”