Improving Ceramic Provenance Determination through Multitechnique Analyses: A Case Study in the Basin of Mexico

国家科学基金会的资金将支持Wesley D. Stoner博士进行分析，该分析将利用墨西哥盆地一个著名的案例研究来改进陶器来源和化学特征的方法。通过化学和矿物分析，考古学家可以追溯到人类过去使用和丢弃的陶瓷的生产来源。连接消费者和生产者本质上重建了经济交换，这在考古记录中通常是看不见的。人类群体之间的商品交换为更好地理解古代文明的基础、权力集中到少数人手中以及一些有史以来最强大的国家和帝国的崩溃提供了数据。墨西哥盆地也不例外，那里的贸易重建有助于了解墨西哥最早的交换系统，以及阿兹特克帝国指挥的贸易和贡品流动。过去，这些分析大多是通过中子活化分析（NAA）进行的。虽然NAA是最常用的陶瓷合成技术之一，但它并不总是回答所有研究问题的最佳工具。最近使用激光烧蚀-电感耦合等离子体质谱法（LA-ICP-MS）进行的陶瓷研究表明，对陶瓷浆料中成分的靶向分析可以增强，有时甚至取代大量NAA数据的效用。拟议研究的主要目的是确定膏体的特定成分（即回火选择，回火和粘土的混合，天然再生包裹体）的数据是否有可能超越从NAA获得的大量化学数据的来源能力。我将使用LA-ICP-MS收集来自墨西哥盆地的回火陶瓷中粘土和再生塑料（回火和天然夹杂物）组分的数据。通过数码显微镜进行图像分析的岩石学将作为解释本研究中化学数据的工具。考古学家尚未普遍使用LA-ICP-MS来研究陶瓷浆料，因此该方法的发展在很大程度上仍处于实验阶段。岩石薄片照片的图像分析也是一项相对较新的技术进步，用于表征考古陶瓷。这两种技术的结合提供了关于泥的各个组成部分的详细信息，因此陶器生产的行为阶段-从原材料采购和混合泥到用卡瓦和油漆装饰-对分析师来说都是可见的。拟议的研究有望确定更有效和详细的种源分析方法。这项研究将产生标准的协议手册，以指导密苏里大学研究堆（MURR）的LA-ICP-MS和岩石学研究。这些手册将被删减，以便通过国际期刊出版物或一本书手稿广泛传播。该项目还将作为对密苏里大学的学生和工作人员进行LA-ICP-MS和岩石学方法培训的基础。此外，一名墨西哥学生将前往MURR协助所有数据收集。通过这个学生，这些技术的知识将在国际上传播。

National Science Foundation funds will support Dr. Wesley D. Stoner in analyses that will improve methods of pottery sourcing and chemical characterization using a well-known case study in the Basin of Mexico. Through chemical and mineral analyses, archaeologists can trace ceramics used and discarded during the human past back to the source of production. Connecting consumers and producers essentially reconstructs economic exchange, which normally remains invisible in the archaeological record. The exchange of goods among human groups has provided data to better understand the foundations ancient civilizations, the accumulation of power into the hands of the few, and the collapse of some of the most powerful states and empires to have ever graced this earth. The Basin of Mexico is no exception, trade reconstructions there have contributed to knowledge of Mexico's very first exchange systems and the flows of trade and tribute commanded by the Aztec Empire. In the past, most of these analyses have been undertaken through neutron activation analysis (NAA). While NAA is among the most commonly applied ceramic compositional techniques, it is not always the best tool to answer all research questions. Recent ceramic studies using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) have demonstrated that targeted analysis of components within the ceramic paste can augment, and sometimes supersede, the utility of bulk NAA data. The principal purpose of the proposed study is to determine whether data for specific components of the paste (i.e. temper choice, mixing of temper and clays, natural aplastic inclusions) can potentially surpass the provenance capabilities of bulk chemical data garnered from NAA. I will employ LA-ICP-MS to collect data on both clay and aplastic (temper and natural inclusions) fractions within tempered ceramics from the Basin of Mexico. Petrography, undertaken through image analysis with a digital microscope, will serve as a tool to interpret the chemical data in this study. Archaeologists have not commonly used LA-ICP-MS to study ceramic pastes, so method development is still largely in an experimental phase. Image analysis of petrographic thinsection photographs is also a relatively recent technological advancement for use in characterizing archaeological ceramics. The combination of these two techniques provides detailed information on individual components of the paste so that behavioral stages of pottery production - from raw material procurement and mixing of pastes to decoration with slips and paints - become visible to the analyst. The proposed research promises to identify methods for more efficient and detailed provenance analysis. This research will produce standard protocol manuals to guide LA-ICP-MS and petrographic studies at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). These manuals will be reduced for broad dissemination through international journal publications and perhaps a book manuscript. This project will also serve as the basis to train students and staff at the University of Missouri in both LA-ICP-MS and petrographic methods. Additionally, a Mexican student will travel to MURR to assist in all data collection. Through this student, knowledge of the techniques will spread internationally.