Ceramics glaze paint analysis

Shepard, A.O. 1965. Rio Grande glaze-paint pottery a test of petrographic analysis. In Ceramics and Man, F. Matson (ed.), pp. 62-87. Chicago Aldine. 

With LA, MC-ICP-MS isotope ratio measurements can be performed in just a few minutes per sample as compared with the several hours per sample required for TIMS analysis. In addition, LA-MC-ICP-MS can yield spatially resolved isotope ratio characterization. Thus, provenance studies of ceramic paints, glazes, and slips in situ by LA-MC-ICP-MS measurement of lead and/or other isotope ratios are obvious areas for future development. Hints of the potential of this approach are highlighted in a recent study by Huntley [74], which showed that interaction on different spatial scales can be detected via elemental analysis of paste together with lead isotope analysis of glaze paints on Zuni glazed wares. 

Nevertheless, ICP-MS has proven to be an integral analytical technique for the analysis of glaze recipes when coupled with laser ablation (LA-ICP-MS) 12, 18-20). Because the laser only ablates the surface of ceramics, data is generated for glazes and paints alone. This allows the researcher to focus on various glaze and paint colors on a single ceramic surface, which would not be possible using traditional bulk analytical techniques such as INAA and MD-ICP-MS. 

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