Geological and archaeological materials

Zircon is often present in geological and archaeological materials. The mineral can therefore be used for dating. Templer (1985) suggested using the intense TL peak near 100 C for dating. The mineral is often found in U-rich minerals, when its TL reaches saturation imder the intense radioactivity. Under these conditions Amin and Durrani... 

Geological and archaeological materials have been studied to assess the effect of alkaline fluids on rocks or geological systems and to document the longevity of CSH gels (which occur rarely in nature). For example at Maqarin, Jordan, a unique hyperalkaline groundwater system is... 

The technical aspects of fluorine detection by nuclear reactions as well as its applications to fluorine analysis in geological and archaeological objects are reviewed. Special attention is given to the determination of exposure ages of meteorites on the Antarctic ice shield and burial durations of archaeological bones and teeth. This information can be acquired by evaluation of the shape and penetration depth of the diffusion profile of fluorine that was incorporated by the sample from the environment. For a quantitative assessment of the data, several factors like ambient conditions and diagenetic state of the material have to be taken into account. 

NRA has a wide range of applications, including use in investigations of metals, glasses, and semiconductor materials, and in such diverse fields as physics, archaeology, biology, and geology. 

Neutron activation is not a widely used method (Fig. 17.8). Some of its applications include characterisation of materials (e.g. high purity metals, semiconductors), the study of the distribution of chemical elements within fossils, ultra-trace analysis in archaeology and geology, and the study of volcanoes. 

Standard materials were also investigated for comparison. These included two humic acids, one from Alfa Aesar (CAS 1415-93-6) obtained from an unknown source, and one from the International Humic Substances Society (IHSS) obtained from standard Elliot soil. IHSS fulvic acid from Elliot soil was also used for comparison. Humic acids are ubiquitous geologic contaminants present in archaeological materials that have been exposed to soil or groundwater, and are important comparative materials for surfaces that are to be (or in this case, have been) radiocarbon dated by the PCO-AMS technique. 

The use of trace element analysis to determine the provenance of archaeological materials has expanded rapidly in the last decade. It is now a well-established technique for the identification of obsidian source deposits (J), and is nearly as established for turquoise (2), steatite (3), and some ceramic materials (4). Native copper has received much less attention. Friedman et al. (5), Fields et al. (6), and Bowman et al. (7) used trace element analyses to determine the type of geological ore from which copper was extracted. However, only our efforts (8) and the work of Goad and Noakes (9) have focused on collecting and analyzing native copper from all potential deposits of a given region to provide a data base for statistical comparison with artifact trace element compositions. 

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