OBSIDIAN IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE NEAR EAST: A PROVENANCING SUCCESS STORY

Obsidian provenancing studies comprise one of the most productive and successful research programmes of archaeological science. Obsidian characterization has been successful because workable obsidian is homogeneous on a small scale, analysable by a large number of methods, and is restricted to a small number of mainly readily distinguishable geological sources. Analytical, dating, source, and trade studies within the western Mediterranean, central and eastern Europe, the Aegean, and Anatolia and the Near East during the last 30 years or so are reviewed. Research has shown that distributions are mainly separate in the four regions examined, and that obsidian was traded up to 900km in the prehistoric period. Publications on obsidian in the areas under review reached a peak of frequency in the later 1970s and 1980s, but have now decreased in number. This may reflect changing fashions in archaeometric studies, and a current lack of routine application of the provenancing methods developed.     

CATHODOLUMINESCENCE OF WHITE MARBLES: AN OVERVIEW*

Identifying the source area of white marbles has long been a problem in archaeology. To address this problem, about 1000 samples from known Classical quarrying areas in Greece, Italy and Turkey were analysed using cathodoluminescence. Twenty-one cathodomicrofacies were recognized, each of which generally characterizes a given area. In cases where the cathodomicrofacies is common to more than one area, δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O signatures provide an effective complementary dataset which allows additional distinctions. Determination keys for the 21 cathodomicrofacies observed are proposed based upon their principal cathodoluminescence colour, and their stable isotopic signature.     

PROVENANCE DETERMINATION OF NEOLITHIC TO CLASSICAL MEDITERRANEAN MARBLES BY STABLE ISOTOPES*

Two stable isotopic data bases for ?¹³C and ?¹⁸O values of marble have been accumulated: (1) 590 analyses from 42 Classical quarries of Greece, western Turkey, Tunisia, and Carrara, Italy, and (2) potential Early Bronze Age (EBA) marble sources in the central Cyclades, comprising 192 analyses from 16 sites on the islands of Paros, Naxos, Ios, and Keros. The data bases include the most important marble occurrences in the eastern Mediterranean and so can be used to source artefacts of any age. Neolithic artefacts found at Franchthi Cave, where no marble occurs locally, have been attributed to the Peloponnese and the Cyclades, direct evidence for early trade. In the Cycladic EBA, Naxos and Keros were the principal marble sources for the abundant artefacts found at Keros. The commercial marble trade in Archaic Greece began in the central Cyclades where the tradition apparently went back some 5000 years, to the Neolithic. Classical Greece and especially Rome expanded the number and locations of commercial marble sources throughout the Mediterranean.     

IDENTIFICATION OF FORGERIES BY MEASURING TIN ISOTOPES IN CORRODED BRONZE OBJECTS*

The reliable identification of fakes consisting of bronze often presents problems, because traditional methods such as stylistic studies, optical microscopy, chemical analysis or X‐ray diffraction of the corrosion may not be conclusive. We present a method that is based on the comparison of the tin isotope ratios ¹²²Sn/¹¹⁶Sn and ¹¹⁷Sn/¹¹⁹Sn in the metal and in the adherent corrosion layer. An artificial patina is usually generated within a short time period. It has been observed that such a procedure leads to a depletion of the light tin isotopes in the corrosion layer, while in naturally corroded authentic archaeological objects no isotopic fractionation has been detected. The method has also been applied to archaeological objects and it could be confirmed, among other examples, that the famous ‘Sky Disc of Nebra’ is authentic.     

A NEW METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF THE PROVENANCE OF WHITE MARBLES BY CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF INCLUSION FLUIDS: THE MARBLES OF THE MAUSOLEUM OF BELEVI/TURKEY*

A new method is presented in this paper to pinpoint the origin of white marbles using the chemical analysis of fluids occurring as micro-inclusions in calcitic or dolomitic marbles. Beside the conventional methods usually applied for this purpose, the analyses of significant anions and cations in fluids extracted from white marbles were used to characterize different types of marbles. Using this new approach it is possible to distinguish different groups of marbles which cannot be separated isotopically. A case study was performed on the mausoleum of Belevi, close to Ephesus in Turkey, and the quarries in the area of the mausoleum. The marbles used for the architecture of the mausoleum cannot be distinguished isotopically but were split into two groups when using fluid inclusion analysis. The corresponding quarry for the high-quality marble (cella walls, columns etc.) turned out to be the Kentli Çiftliği quarry, which also supplied the marbles for the classical Artemision. According to the chemical and fluid data it can be shown, however, that neither the adjacent famous antique quarry of Belevi nor the underground mine of Kusini, some 5 km away from the mausoleum, are the sources for the marbles used for the construction or decoration of the mausoleum.     

ISOTOPES ON THE BEACH,PART 1: STRONTIUM ISOTOPE RATIOS AS A PROVENANCE INDICATOR FOR LIME RAW MATERIALS USED IN ROMAN GLASS‐MAKING

The provenancing of Roman natron glass is one of the most challenging problems in the field of archaeometry. Although the use of Sr and Nd isotope ratios and trace element signatures as an indication of provenance has proven promising, there are still many unknowns. In this study, the influence of the different raw materials on the final Sr isotopic composition of Roman natron glass is examined. It is shown that the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio in natron glass is significantly influenced by the silicate fraction of the sand used and does not always provide a clear indication of the lime source used.     

A Taphonomic Approach to Late Classic Maya Mortuary Practices at Xuenkal,Yucatán,Mexico

Abstract

Following a brief introduction to mortuary practices in Prehispanic Maya society, we outline the analytical procedures followed during the excavation and laboratory investigation of five burial assemblages from the Late Classic period site of Xuenkal, Yucatán, Mexico. A detailed account of a sequence of primary and secondary interments is provided with a focus on taphonomic and biovital information, emphasizing the importance of an interdisciplinary approach, especially human taphonomy, for the reconstruction of complex Maya mortuary treatments. Our results show that bodies of the dead or their parts followed surprisingly long and complex funerary paths.     

PETROGRAPHIC AND ISOTOPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MARBLE OF THE ISLAND OF TINOS (GREECE)*

Most outcrops of good‐quality crystalline marble in Mediterranean countries were exploited in Greek and Roman times. Hence, a wide variety of marble is now found in archaeological excavations. The precise determination of the provenance of a marble object is of great archaeological importance, and is now mostly obtained by coupling the petrographic study of a thin section with the analysis of the C and O stable isotopes, or by stereomicroscopy and EPR. The existing databases are considerable but still insufficient, because our knowledge about and study of ancient Mediterranean quarries remain incomplete. The contribution of this research is to add new petrographic and isotopic data on small quarries on the Greek island of Tinos that were exploited in antiquity. This marble belongs to the same geological horizon; it is quite pure, sometimes dolomitic and characterized by a low‐T, high‐P metamorphism that produced a limited recrystallization (MGS varying from 0.64 to 2.50 mm) on marine limestone protoliths. The petrographic features are quite distinctive: the fabric is strongly lineated and often stressed; and the accessory minerals are ubiquitary quartz, ore minerals, graphite and muscovite. As far as the isotopic data are concerned, δ¹³C_PDB varies from 1.1 to 2.7, and δ¹⁸O_PDB from ?1.7 to ?11.4. Both the features and the data have been compared with those of similar marbles used in antiquity, showing that their combination mirrors the fingerprint of the Tinos marble.     

BRONZE AGE CHILDHOOD MIGRATION OF INDIVIDUALS NEAR STONEHENGE,REVEALED BY STRONTIUM AND OXYGEN ISOTOPE TOOTH ENAMEL ANALYSIS*

Contrasting lifestyles are recorded by the isotope composition of Bronze Age Beaker people (c. 2500–2000 bc ) from three burial sites (Boscombe Down, Normanton Down and the ditch around Stonehenge) at or near to the Stonehenge monument in Wiltshire, southern England. Seven individuals (three adults, a sub‐adult, two juveniles and an infant) were recovered from a single grave at Boscombe Down. Strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel from two teeth (a premolar and third molar) from each of three of the adults in this grave (referred to as Boscombe Bowmen) show that they had all shared a pattern of mobility and migration during their lives. The three adult males spent their early childhood (as represented by data from the premolar teeth) in an area with a radiogenic ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotope signature of around 0.7135. They each then moved, during early adolescence (as represented by the third molar results), to a less radiogenic area, where they acquired an ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr signature of around 0.7112. This implies that they must then have travelled to the Stonehenge area of Wiltshire at a later time in their lives. Wales provides the closest area with rocks that supply suitable ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and δ¹⁸O isotope compositions for these individuals, although other areas of Palaeozoic rock, such as Scotland and parts of Europe, cannot be ruled out. Enamel from the two juveniles from the Boscombe Down burial yields ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of 0.7098 and 0.7099, and strontium concentrations for both of 55 ppm. The very close match of the data for the two juveniles supports the possibility that they were raised in the same environment. The difference in strontium isotope data between the juveniles and three adult males described above shows that the children did not come from the same homeland as the adults with whom they share a grave. The two adult males from the single burials at Normanton Down, and from Stonehenge itself, had static lifestyles and show no evidence of migration, in contrast to the Boscombe Bowmen. Their oxygen and strontium data are consistent with a childhood in the Stonehenge area.     

How Did Mississippians Prepare Maize? The Application of Compound‐Specific Carbon Isotope Analysis to Absorbed Pottery Residues From Several Mississippi Valley Sites

A newly developed compound‐specific stable carbon isotope technique allows the detection of maize in absorbed organic pottery residues. This method was applied to absorbed organic residues from a variety of Mississippi Valley potsherds, and successfully identified maize components. Maize was cooked in sampled vessels less often than expected, but otherwise fitted expected patterns of maize use derived from stable carbon isotope analysis of human bone from the region. Absorbed organic pottery residue analysis is useful in determining pottery use, particularly in concert with other analytical methods.