INAA & HPXRF or Technology & Archaeology

[Starflower]

I came across a really good article today:
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Arc ... ttery.html

BERKELEY, CA — Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Bar-Ilan University have discovered unusually high concentrations of silver in samples of many different types of pottery from excavations in Jerusalem of the late Second Temple period, the first century BCE (Before the Common Era) through 70 CE (Common Era). This is the first study ever conducted on silver in archaeological ceramics.

Though this was interesting in itself, I was really interested in their technique:

They used high-precision X-ray fluorescence (HPXRF) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The Berkeley Lab team developed a variation of INAA, the INAA coincidence technique, specifically for measuring silver concentrations in archaeological samples, as a more accurate means of checking the results of HPXRF and conventional INAA.

At the end of the article were a number of great links including:

http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Arc ... ology.html

In culturally complex areas, however, where various settlements were manufacturing and trading wares of similar composition, the standard methods of archaeology -- excavating and comparing decorative styles and materials -- are not always sufficient to unambiguously determine whether an artifact was actually made where it was found

This is where new methods of materials analysis known as instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) come in. The work of Berkeley Lab's Frank Asaro, Robert D. Giauque and their colleagues has shown that these methods can help solve archaeological problems

And you just have to love a guy who loves what he's doing this much

Asaro formally retired from the Lab in 1991, although he says he continues to work full-time "and often longer, just for the fun of it."

If you are here for the love of archaeology, please post your opinions.

[Beagle]

I haven't heard of these techniques, but the field is moving so fast it's almost impoosible for the layman to keep up. I also didnt know there was a significant amount of silver in the middle east.

Pretty neat though.

[Beagle]

Doodle doodle dee, wubba wubba wubba.

[Minimalist]

The Roman denarius, the Athenian drachma, and the Jewish shekel were all silver coins.

How that ended up in the groundwater is anyone's guess.

[CuriousGranny]

I'm sorry, but I'm not as archaeologically evolved as some of you (lol)...
What would the presense of silver mean?

[Guest]

What would the presense of silver mean

it means that instead of calling it Iron Age IAia2b3ciii they would have to call it the silver age

If you are here for the love of archaeology

those must be some powerful drugs....

...there i posted does it mean i love archaeology now?

[Minimalist]

I'm sorry, but I'm not as archaeologically evolved as some of you (lol)...
What would the presense of silver mean?

“Because pottery samples containing higher amounts of silver were all recovered from sites in cities, and because the cities were distant from one another,” says Asaro, “we concluded that the silver anomalies are associated with human activity.” Natural causes do not explain the geographical distribution of samples with high silver content. The researchers also concluded that silver was washed into the pottery through the action of groundwater.

Perhaps it means they were pissing money away?

[Guest]

It means that the ancient Israelis were such poor and bedraggled sheep-herders that silver was everywhere in their cities.

[oldarchystudent]

“Because pottery samples containing higher amounts of silver were all recovered from sites in cities, and because the cities were distant from one another,” says Asaro, “we concluded that the silver anomalies are associated with human activity.” Natural causes do not explain the geographical distribution of samples with high silver content. The researchers also concluded that silver was washed into the pottery through the action of groundwater.

Am I reading this correctly? One sentence says the silver was there by human activity, the other by groundwater action. Which is it? Both?

[Minimalist]

Minting coins. Mining operations. Metalworking/jewelry.

I cannot recall ever hearing about a silver mine in Palestine, though.

[Guest]

I cannot recall ever hearing about a silver mine in Palestine, though

that is understanable as they may have traded for it or the archaeologists haven't dug in the right spots to discover the mines or smelters.

then again if it is like glass blowing, it cold have gone on a lot earlier than thought. i remember reading an article that discusses the new finds re-dating that art.

[Starflower]

I understand that running water is used in the smelting process and also during silversmithing. Since waste water was often thrown into the nearest stream I would assume this is why there was silver residue in the pottery(which also uses water in its production).

What fascinated me was the method being used to make this discovery and how it is being used in archaeology,which was why I posted the second link.

Turning their attention to Egypt in 1973, Asaro and his colleagues began studying the Colossi of Memnon, two 50-foot hewn-quartzite statues located near Luxor. These guardians of Pharoah Amenhotep III were built before 1,200 B.C. In 27 B.C., an earthquake felled half of the north statue, and the damage was not repaired until 200 A.D. by order of Roman emperor Septimius Severus. Archaeologists thought that the quartzite had come from a quarry 100 miles away near Aswan. Using neutron activation analysis, Asaro and his co-workers showed that the original rock for the statues came from quarries in Cairo, 420 miles away, and that the Romans subsequently used stone from the nearer Aswan quarry to repair the statue.

This technology has also been used to detect a forgery.
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Arc ... plate.html
Has anyone else read anything else lately?
To all, Sorry about the last line of my original post. This is the first thread I have ever started and I did not want it to be used by nameless persons for their own agendas. I would love to discuss how modern technology is affecting archaeology.

[Minimalist]

A search via Google indicates that large scale use of silver coins dates to the 6th century BC and ancient Athens; the Laurion silver mines were well known.

http://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/~cowen/~ ... 15CH6.html

Silver became a major precious metal in the 6th century BC, possibly because the introduction of cupellation yielded greater supplies. The power of Athens was originally founded on silver, and they struck one of the first silver coins in the world (the Athenian drachma) about 580 BC. The source was the silver mines in the Laurion district, 65 km south of the city in a steep hilly area overlooking the Aegean Sea. They were first worked during the Bronze Age, but increased production after about 545 BC financed the rise to power of classical Athens.

Of course, there would be nothing to stop a king from melting down silver coins issued by others and re-minting his own design.

[oldarchystudent]

I'm not sure how much it takes, but if they get enough of the silver they can source it to find out where it came from. It could tell us a lot.

[Starflower]

I'm not sure how much it takes, but if they get enough of the silver they can source it to find out where it came from. It could tell us a lot.

That is what I'm talking about! And not just for this silver but all the pottery, stone blocks etc. We could finally trace trade routes with better certainty.
I'm very excited about the possibilities here.