APPLICATIONS OF PETROGRAPHY AND ELECTRON MICROPROBE ANALYSIS TO THE STUDY OF INDIAN STONE SCULPTURE*

Examples of research on ancient Indian stone artefacts utilizing petrographic examination coupled with qualitative and quantitative electron beam microprobe analysis of specific minerals are described. Types of artefacts discussed include Gandharan schist sculptures. Pala dynasty phyllite and schist objects from eastern India, Hoysala sculptures from Karnataka state (southern India), and sandstone objects from northern India. In spite of the rich history of stone sculpture in the Indian subcontinent, characterization studies to date have been limited in scope, typically involving unprovenanced artefacts. The examples described point to areas in which more extensive research could produce useful information for the provenancing of artefacts.     

CHARACTERIZATION OF LATE CHALCOLITHIC MICRO‐BEADS FROM ÇAMLIBEL TARLASI,NORTH‐CENTRAL ANATOLIA

Micro‐bead manufacture is geographically widespread from the fifth millennium bc . Previous studies of comparable micro‐beads from sites in the Indus Valley region and the Near East suggest that many of these beads were formed from synthetic enstatite. Characterization of micro‐beads from the Late Chalcolithic site of Çaml?bel Tarlas? was carried out by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and microanalysis with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X‐ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The chemical composition of the micro‐beads analysed indicated that they were made from three distinctive materials; namely, bulk talc (i.e., synthetic enstatite precursor), apatite and mineral‐rich clay pastes.     

STEATITE SOURCE CHARACTERIZATION IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA: NEW RESULTS USING INSTRUMENTAL NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS*

Doubts have recently been cast on the ability to characterize steatite sources using rare earth elements (REEs). By increasing the number of samples and elements examined using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and multivariate statistics, this study shows that, with unhomogenized samples, transition metals, not REEs, make the greatest contribution in characterizing steatite sources in the Middle Atlantic region of eastern North America. Preliminary results suggest that INAA has the potential to assign provenance to steatite artefacts, at least at a regional level.