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

美国国家科学基金会的基金将支持韦斯利·D·斯通纳博士的分析，利用墨西哥盆地的一个著名案例，改进陶器采购和化学表征的方法。通过化学和矿物分析，考古学家可以追踪人类过去使用和丢弃的陶瓷，追溯到生产的源头。将消费者和生产者联系起来，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提供了数据，以更好地了解古代文明的基础，权力积累到少数人手中，以及一些曾经为地球增光的最强大的国家和帝国的崩溃。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是最常用的陶瓷成分技术之一，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(LA-ICP-MS)进行的陶瓷研究表明，对陶瓷浆料中的成分进行有针对性的分析可以增加，有时甚至取代大量NAA数据的用途。拟议研究的主要目的是确定膏体的特定成分的数据(即回火选择、回火和粘土的混合、天然再生包裹体)是否有可能超过从NAA获得的大量化学数据的来源能力。我将使用LA-ICP-MS收集墨西哥盆地回火陶瓷中粘土和可塑性(回火和自然夹杂物)组分的数据。在这项研究中，通过用数字显微镜进行图像分析进行的岩石学将作为解释化学数据的工具。考古学家还没有普遍使用LA-ICPMS来研究陶瓷浆料，因此方法的开发在很大程度上仍处于实验阶段。岩石学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膏体个别成分的详细信息，因此分析师可以看到陶器生产的行为阶段--从原材料采购到膏体的混合，再到用纸片和油漆进行装饰。拟议的研究承诺确定更有效和更详细的来源分析方法。这项研究将编制标准协议手册，指导密苏里大学研究反应堆(MURR)的LA-ICPMS和岩石学研究。这些手册将减少，以便通过国际期刊出版物和可能的书稿广泛传播。该项目还将作为对密苏里大学学生和教职员工进行LA-ICPMS和岩石学方法培训的基础。此外，一名墨西哥学生将前往穆尔协助收集所有数据。通过这个学生，技术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.