Provenance lead isotope

Budd, P, R. Haggerty, A.M. Pollard, B. Scaife, and R.G. Thomas. 1996. Rethinking the quest for provenance (lead isotope analysis). Antiquity 70 168-175. 

Trace-element analysis of metals can give indications of the geographic provenance of the material. Both emission spectroscopy (84) and activation analysis (85) have been used for this purpose. Another tool in provenance studies is the measurement of relative abundances of the lead isotopes (86,87). This technique is not restricted to metals, but can be used on any material that contains lead. Finally, for an object cast around a ceramic core, a sample of the core material can be used for thermoluminescence dating. 

Gale, N. and Z. Stos-Gale (2000), Lead isotope analysis applied to provenance studies, in Ciliberto, E. and G. Spoto (eds.), Modern Analytical Methods in Art and Archaeology, Chemical Analysis Series, Vol. 155, Wiley, New York, pp. 503-584. 

Al-Saad, Z. (2000). Technology and provenance of a collection of Islamic copper-based objects as found by chemical and lead isotope analysis. 

Stos-Gale, Z.A., Maliotis, G., Gale, N.H. and Annetts, N. (1997). Lead isotope characteristics of the Cyprus copper ore deposits applied to provenance studies of copper oxhide ingots. Archaeometry 39 83-123. 

Recent reviews (11-12) make it unnecessary to do more than draw attention to some salient points of lead isotope archaeology. For many years, comparative lead isotope studies of ancient metals and ores from the appropriate ore deposits have been in the forefront of metal provenance studies in archaeology (13-15). The earliest lead isotope studies by Brill (17-18) and... 

In contrast with conformable ore deposits, some vein-type ore deposits have variable lead isotope compositions that plot as linear arrays of data points in one or both lead isotope diagrams. Such anomalous, or multistage, ore deposits can sometimes cause difficulties for archaeological provenance studies (30-31). Fortunately, deposits of this type are not common in the region of the Mediterranean indeed, none have yet been found. Only in... 

Seven years ago we started the first systematic research program on the application of the lead isotope techniques to provenance studies in archaeology. Particular stress was placed on the sources of metals in the Mediterranean Bronze Age. For the first 2 years we worked mostly on the sources of lead and silver in Bronze Age Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt (32-36). In 1982, we pioneered the application of the lead isotope method for prove-nancing copper-based artifacts (15, 37-38). 

The program (TGPL78) and its associated subroutine (AX12) written in FORTRAN, are reproduced as Appendixes II and III. A computer-drawn flow chart of the program is shown in Appendix IV. In the computer memory we have a large file of our Chinese bronze analyses both for major and trace elements. Some additional data as to the bronze type, date, provenance, whether it has been dated by thermoluminescence, and what the lead isotope ratios are if measured are also in this file. For the 150 Chinese belt hooks which we have analyzed, we also include three lines of shape and typological data. 

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