Characterization of Iron age pottery from eastern Turkey by laser- induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

Title

Characterization of Iron age pottery from eastern Turkey by laser- induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

Creator(s)

Erdem, Aylin

Çilingiroğlu, Altan

Giakoumaki, Anastasia

Castanys, M.

Kartsonaki, E.

Fotakis, Costas

Anglos, D.

Date

2008

Is Part Of

Journal of Archaeological Science

Volume

35

Issue

9

Pages

2486-2494

Language

eng

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2008.03.019

Zotero BiDiAr

https://www.zotero.org/groups/5293298/bidiar/items/D7CAQBRZitem-list

Abstract

Selected pottery sherds coming from the Ayanis, Dilkaya and Karagündüz excavations in eastern Turkey and dated from the Early to Middle Iron Age were examined as regards their composition by using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The objective of the study was first to investigate the potential of the LIBS technique in the compositional analysis of pottery and further to explore correlations in spectral data, by using chemometrics methods that would possibly enable discrimination among different sherds. This work is part of a broader study aiming to examine clay variability both before and during the Urartian State period and to explore possible relationships and differences among pottery objects from fortresses and settlements or settlements and cemeteries on the basis of the clay composition of sherds. Preliminary results demonstrate that by using the LIBS technique it is possible to analyse pottery sherds in qualitative and semi-quantitative ways, providing information on the clay and slip composition. Furthermore, encouraging results have been obtained by carrying out principal component analysis (PCA) on the LIBS spectra, which suggest that in certain cases, it is possible to directly correlate spectral information with the origin of pottery sherds.