María Guadalupe Castro González, María Pilar Prieto Martínez, Antonio Martínez Cortizas
{"title":"The Role of Mineral and Organic Composition on the Phosphorus Content of Prehistoric Pottery (Middle Neolithic to Late Bronze Age) from NW Spain","authors":"María Guadalupe Castro González, María Pilar Prieto Martínez, Antonio Martínez Cortizas","doi":"10.3390/min14090880","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Phosphorus is a key element for identifying past human activity. Recently, phosphorus analyses have been extended to archaeological objects, aiming at distinguishing how depositional contexts contribute to its enrichment. In archaeological pottery, phosphorus might depend on several manufacturing and postdepositional processes (i.e., addition of organic temper, pigments, diagenetic incorporation). We analyzed by XRD, XRF, and mid-infrared (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy 178 pots from eight NW Spain archaeological sites. These sites encompass different chronologies, contexts, and local geology. The phosphorus content was highly variable (224–27,722 mg kg−1) overall but also between archeological sites (1644 ± 487 to 13,635 ± 6623 mg kg−1) and within archaeological sites (4–36, max/min ratio). No phosphate minerals were identified by XRD nor FTIR-ATR, but correlations between phosphorus content and MIR absorbances showed maxima at 1515 and 980 cm−1, suggesting the presence of two sources: one organic (i.e., phosphorylated aromatic compounds) and another inorganic (i.e., albite and K-feldspar). Phosphorylated aromatics were most likely formed during pottery firing and were preserved due to their high resistance to temperature and oxidation. Meanwhile, albite and K-feldspar are among the P-bearing minerals with higher P concentrations. Our results suggest that P content is related to intentional and non-intentional actions taken in the pottery production process.","PeriodicalId":18601,"journal":{"name":"Minerals","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Minerals","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/min14090880","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GEOCHEMISTRY & GEOPHYSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Phosphorus is a key element for identifying past human activity. Recently, phosphorus analyses have been extended to archaeological objects, aiming at distinguishing how depositional contexts contribute to its enrichment. In archaeological pottery, phosphorus might depend on several manufacturing and postdepositional processes (i.e., addition of organic temper, pigments, diagenetic incorporation). We analyzed by XRD, XRF, and mid-infrared (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy 178 pots from eight NW Spain archaeological sites. These sites encompass different chronologies, contexts, and local geology. The phosphorus content was highly variable (224–27,722 mg kg−1) overall but also between archeological sites (1644 ± 487 to 13,635 ± 6623 mg kg−1) and within archaeological sites (4–36, max/min ratio). No phosphate minerals were identified by XRD nor FTIR-ATR, but correlations between phosphorus content and MIR absorbances showed maxima at 1515 and 980 cm−1, suggesting the presence of two sources: one organic (i.e., phosphorylated aromatic compounds) and another inorganic (i.e., albite and K-feldspar). Phosphorylated aromatics were most likely formed during pottery firing and were preserved due to their high resistance to temperature and oxidation. Meanwhile, albite and K-feldspar are among the P-bearing minerals with higher P concentrations. Our results suggest that P content is related to intentional and non-intentional actions taken in the pottery production process.
期刊介绍:
Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X) is an international open access journal that covers the broad field of mineralogy, economic mineral resources, mineral exploration, innovative mining techniques and advances in mineral processing. It publishes reviews, regular research papers and short notes. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible. There is no restriction on the length of the papers. The full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced.