Cattin, Guénette-Beck, Besse, Serneels_2009_Lead isotopes and archaeometallurgy. In : Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, special issue, 1, 3 (original) (raw)
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BSGF - Earth Sciences Bulletin
The identification of mineral supply sources and trade routes are at the heart of the archaeological issues. The tracing of sources of metal production via lead isotopy has been used since the 1980s to identify the deposits from which the metal constituting the archaeological objects came. Such studies are based on mineral signature repositories and archaeologists have thus built up databases containing thousands of ore deposit analyses. The databases, however, only very rarely include geological information and are limited to geographic information. But considering only geographical data leads to many limitations of studies, including the overlapping of signatures between remote regions. This problem could nevertheless be circumvented by taking into account precise ore deposit data that enables to think in terms of restricted mineralized subsets. We illustrate this through the example of data collected in the Alps by Marcoux (1986) and Nimis et al. (2012). Taking into account geolo...
Geological constraints on the use of lead isotopes for provenance in archaeometallurgy
Archaeometry, 2020
The first half of this article is a brief critical history of the use of lead isotopes for inferring the geological provenance of archaeological materials, with emphasis on non-ferrous metals. The second half examines variation in the lead isotopic ratios of oxide and sulphide ore minerals in selected regions of the world, and relates these to the geological histories of ore formation in each region. This exercise shows that in regions where most ore deposits are of similar geological age-as in the Andes, Europe, and the circum-Mediterranean-provenance analysis with lead isotopes is inherently difficult because geographically distant sources often exhibit similar isotopic ratios. Conversely, regions with many periods of ore formation-like southern Africa-appear to be very promising regions for future studies of provenance with lead isotopes. The wider implication of our exploratory survey is that archaeologists should consider carefully the range and clustering of geological lead isotopic ratios in their regions of interest before investing large sums of money in lead isotopic analysis of artefacts.
Application of lead isotope analysis to provenance studies in archaeology
1992
I am very grateful to Professor K.W. Alien for most enlightening discussions, support and advice during the preparation of my thesis. I would like also to thank very warmly two other physicists: Dr. George Doucas of Oxford and Professor Al Silverman of Cornell for their sound scientific criticism, encouragement and advice. I am also grateful to all members of the Isotrace Laboratory for their cooperation and helpful atitude, and Martin Roberts for proofreading and correcting the text. Finally I would like to thank my husband Noel Gale for introducing me to this fascinating subject and giving me the highest example of scientific discipline and hard work.
Use of non-traditional heavy stable isotopes in archaeological research
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2021
Abstract Recent analytical developments in the field of mass spectrometry have made possible accurate measurements of “non-traditional” isotopic ratios of elements such as Fe, Cu, Ag, Sn, Sb and Hg. The stable isotopes of these elements do not have any radioactive parents, but their ratios undergo limited fractionation from various causes, most of them mass-dependent. These effects can lead to variation in isotopic ratios of natural materials (minerals, rocks, ores, etc.) and in archaeological artifacts derived from them. Research since 2010 has investigated whether variation in these isotopic ratios can be used to infer the geological provenance of archaeological materials, including bronze and glass. Here we review recent research on these isotopic systems in archaeology, their principal applications, as well as expected future developments in their use. We conclude that none of these isotopic systems are likely to be very useful for provenance, mostly because of limited ranges of isotopic ratios and/or extensive overlap between the isotopic ratios of most geological sources. Copper isotope ratios are however a reliable method for inferring the type of ore (supergene versus hypogene) smelted to produce copper, and recent studies indicate that silver isotope ratios can also be applied to this effect.