Neutron activation analyses ceramic characterization

Glascock, M.D. (1992). Characterization of archaeological ceramics at MURR by neutron activation analysis and multivariate statistics. In Chemical Characterization of Ceramic Pastes in Archaeology, ed. Neff, H., Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin, pp. 11-26. 

Descantes, C., Neff, H., Glascock, M. D., and Dickinson, W. R. (2001). Chemical characterization of Micronesian ceramics through instrumental neutron activation analysis a preliminary provenance study. Journal of Archaeological Science 28 1185-1190. 

The following section focuses on the variability of the clay bodies or pastes of the glazed ceramics previously characterized by LA-ICP-MS and LA-TOF-ICP-MS. The purpose of this study is to compare the variation in the ceramic pastes with the different glaze decorative technologies through time. The variability in the ceramic pastes will be characterized through instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and petrographic analysis. 

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been utilized as a bulk technique for the analysis of obsidian, chert and ceramic compositional analyses 12-14). However, due to the high level of spatial variation of ceramic materials, increased sample preparation is necessary with volatile acids coupled with microwave digestion (MD-ICP-MS) to properly represent the variability of ceramic assemblages IS, 16). Due to the increased sample preparation and exposure to volatile chemicals, researchers have continued to utilize neutron activation analysis (INAA) as the preferred method of chemical characterization of archaeological ceramics (77). 

Because geochemically different clay sources may have been used by potters to produce ceramics for both domestic and trade purposes, neutron activation analysis (NAA) has been used as an independent means of ceramic characterization. Because of the relatively good analytical precision possible with NAA, statistical patterning of NAA data for major, minor, and trace element concentrations may be used as a powerful provenancing tool. 

Neutron activation and petrographic analysis of late medieval Spanish pottery from the major Spanish production centers of Seville, Granada, Patema-Manises, Barcelona, and Talavera-Puente allowed progress to be made in uniquely characterizing these production centers (5-7). Efforts to identify different Mexican majolica productions petrographically have been unsuccessful, and an attempt at chemical characterization by directly coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy was later determined to have been flawed by problems encountered with the dissolution of the ceramic samples... 

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