Potential of Sr isotopic analysis in ceramic provenance studies: Characterisation of Chinese stonewares

We compare the trace element and Sr isotopic compositions of stoneware bodies made in Yaozhou and Jizhou to characterise these Chinese archaeological ceramics and examine the potential of Sr isotopes in provenance studies. Element concentrations determined by ICP-MS achieve distinct characterisation for Jizhou samples due to their restricted variation, yet had limited success with Yaozhou wares because of their large variability. In contrast, Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios in Yaozhou samples have a very small variation and are all significantly lower than those of Jizhou samples, which show a large variation and cannot be well characterised with Sr isotopes. Geochemical interpretation reveals that Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios will have greater potential to characterise ceramics made of low Rb/Sr materials such as kaolin clay, yet will show larger variations in ceramics made of high Rb/Sr materials such as porcelain stone. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Provenance of long-travelled dust determined with ultra-trace-element composition: A pilot study with samples from New Zealand glaciers

We report high-precision inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric (ICP-MS) compositional data for 39 trace elements in a variety of dust deposits, trapped sediments and surface samples from New Zealand and Australia. Dusts collected from the surface of alpine glaciers in the Southern Alps, New Zealand, believed to have undergone long-distance atmospheric transport from Australia, are recognizable on account of their overabundances of Pb and Cu with respect to typical upper crustal values. Long-travelled dust from Australia therefore scavenges these and other metals (e.g. Zn, Sb and Cd) from the atmosphere during transport and deposition. Hence, due to anthropogenic pollution, long-travelled Australian dusts can be recognized by elevated metal contents. The relative abundance of 25 other elements that are not affected by atmospheric pollution, mineral sorting (Zr and Hf) and weathering/solubility (alkali and earth alkali elements) reflects the geochemistry of the dust source sediment. As a result, we are able to establish the provenance of dust using ultra-trace-element chemistry at regional scale. Comparison of long-travelled dust chemistry with potential Australian sources shows that fits of variable quality are obtained. We propose that the best fitting potential source chemistry most likely represents the major dust source area. A binary mixing model is used to demonstrate that admixture of small quantities of local dust provides an even better fitting dust chemistry for the long-travelled dusts. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The provenance and technology of Near Eastern glass: Oxygen isotopes by laser fluorination as a complement to strontium

The ability to make rapid measurements on small samples using laser fluorination enhances the potential of oxygen isotopes in the investigation of early inorganic materials and technologies. delta O-18 and Sr-87/Sr-86 values are presented for glass from two primary production sites, four secondary production sites and a consumer site in the Near East, dating from Late Antiquity to the medieval period. delta O-18 is in general slightly less effective than Sr-87/Sr-86 in discriminating between sources, as the spread of measured values from a single source is somewhat broader relative to the available range. However, while Sr-87/Sr-86 is derived predominantly from either the lime-bearing fraction of the glass-making sand or the plant ash used as a source of alkali, delta O-18 derives mainly from the silica. Thus the two measurements can provide complementary information. A comparison of delta O-18 for late Roman - Islamic glasses made on the coast of Syria-Palestine with those of previously analysed glasses from Roman Europe suggests that the European glasses are relatively enriched in O-18. This appears to contradict the view that most Roman glass was made using Levantine sand and possible interpretations are discussed.