Development of High Precision X-Ray Fluoresecence and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis Techniques Suitable for Intrasite Provenance Studies

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Frank Asaro博士和他的同事将继续开发和测试用于陶瓷分析的x射线荧光（XRF）技术。XRF与其他几种方法一样，可以确定陶瓷中存在的微量元素的丰度，这些数据对考古研究人员非常重要。微量元素的频率是由用于制造容器的粘土以及所含的回火材料决定的，通过对相对丰度的分析，通常可以确定“陶器”的存在——一组具有共同结构的材料，因此应该归类在一起。有时也可以通过与粘土原料的地质收藏进行比较，将特定的陶器追溯到它们的起源。通过对大量遗址的陶瓷研究和分析，考古学家可以深入了解陶瓷生产和贸易的组织。陶瓷的运动也揭示了经济和政治组织。由于陶瓷在许多史前社会中发挥了至关重要的作用，并且在许多考古遗址中保存完好，数量众多，因此它成为考古学关注的中心焦点。虽然XRF在微量元素研究中应用并不广泛，但其潜力巨大。它的成本相对较低，需要的采样时间也相对较少。如果它发展到其他技术的准确度水平，它将极大地方便考古学家实际获取微量元素数据。在这个国家科学基金会的奖项中，阿萨罗博士和他的同事将追求几个目标。他们将努力改进技术本身，并专注于提高一些元素的测量精度，特别是铁和低Z元素。他们将使用来自加利利和尤卡坦半岛考古遗址的陶器群以及来自这两个地区的原材料作为测试案例，并同时应用XRA和INAA技术。成分数据将使用一系列统计方法进行评估。高精度XRF或INAA，或两种方法结合起来，是否能够从这两个不同地区的单个遗址中区分出相似的陶器成分群，将被确定。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Frank Asaro and his colleagues will continue to develop and test the x-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique for ceramic analysis. XRF, in common with several other approaches, determines the abundance of trace elements present in ceramics and such data are extremely important to archaeological researchers. Trace element frequencies are set by both the clay used to manufacture a vessel as well as the tempering material included and through analysis of relative abundances it is often possible to establish the presence of "wares" - groups of material which share a common fabric and thus should be classed together. It is also sometimes possible to trace specific wares back to their point of origin through comparison with geological collections of clay raw material. Through sourcing studies and analysis of ceramics from large numbers of sites archaeologists can gain insight into the organization of ceramic production and trade. The movement of ceramics also sheds light on economic and political organization. Because ceramics played such a crucial role in many prehistoric societies and because it is well preserved and abundant in many archaeological sites, it provides a central focus of archaeological attention.Although XRF is not widely used for trace element studies, its potential is great. Its cost is relatively low and relatively little sample time is required. Were it developed to the level of accuracy of other techniques it would greatly facilitate archaeologists' practical access to trace element data. In this NSF award, Dr. Asaro and his colleagues will pursue several goals. They will work to improve the technique itself and focus on increasing the precision of measurement for a number of elements, especially Fe and lower Z elements. They shall use pottery groups from archaeological sites in the Galilee and Yucatan and raw materials from both areas as test cases and apply both XRA and INAA techniques. Compositional data will be evaluated using a battery of statistical methods. It will be determined if high-precision XRF or INAA, or both methods together are capable of distinguishing closely similar pottery compositional groups from individual sites in these two diverse areas.