Simon P. Sherman III, Ryan M. Parish, Youngsang Kwon, Steven Meredith, David Johnson
{"title":"Non-destructively characterizing sandstones, orthoquartzites, agates, and petrified wood for provenance research: Perspectives from the Southeastern Coastal Plain, United States","authors":"Simon P. Sherman III, Ryan M. Parish, Youngsang Kwon, Steven Meredith, David Johnson","doi":"10.1002/gea.22018","DOIUrl":"10.1002/gea.22018","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Siliceous sandstone (including quartzites), petrified wood, and agates located in Alabama and Mississippi were utilized as a toolstone resource during every recognized cultural period in the Lower Mississippi Valley region of the Southeastern United States. Regrettably, these materials have not been the focus of many provenance-related investigations. Recent analyses of quartzite and sandstone from other regions in North America and from the Pyrenees were successful in discriminating sources using petrographic techniques. The current study examines the application of visible/near-infrared reflectance and Fourier transform infrared reflectance (FTIR) spectroscopy on sourcing siliceous materials besides chert, particularly sandstones, orthoquartzites (quartz sandstone), petrified woods, and agates. This source characterization investigation focuses on a case study involving materials gathered from eight distinct collection sites, encompassing nine different siliceous resources collected in Alabama and Mississippi. These materials were sourced from two distinct geological formations: the Hattiesburg and Tallahatta. Results demonstrate the ability of non-destructive reflectance spectroscopy and introduces a new outlier modeling method that detects, clusters, and separately models outliers with their own set of basis vectors. Principal component analyses, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression, linear discriminant function analysis (LDA), and random forest classification are used in this paper to better identify outlier elements as well as discriminate for stone materials accurately (between 67% and 100%). Although this is the first reflectance spectroscopy investigation used to characterize these materials for provenance applications, the preliminary results compare favorably with other provenance techniques whose aim is to quantify between-formation (inter) and within-formation (intra) outcrop variation. The quantified and differentiated sources, based on the hyperspectral signatures of the material, will provide a better understanding of prehistoric reliance on these lithic resources and produces a proxy to determine mobility, social interaction, and other past behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":55117,"journal":{"name":"Geoarchaeology-An International Journal","volume":"39 6","pages":"628-644"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141771984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Simone Casale, Niels Groot, Raymundo A. C. F. Dijkhoff, Harold J. Kelly, Loe Jacobs, Patrick Degryse, Corinne L. Hofman
{"title":"Petrographic insight into the sourcing and production of pre-colonial Ceramics from Aruba","authors":"Simone Casale, Niels Groot, Raymundo A. C. F. Dijkhoff, Harold J. Kelly, Loe Jacobs, Patrick Degryse, Corinne L. Hofman","doi":"10.1002/gea.22017","DOIUrl":"10.1002/gea.22017","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This research presents the findings of a petrographic analysis conducted on pre-colonial Ceramics from Aruba, focusing on understanding ceramic mineral resources and production. The study compared ceramics from nine sites with a selection of clay sources from the island. Petrographic analysis identified the existence of three different mineralogical compositions. Two groups of undecorated vessels were likely manufactured using locally sourced clay materials. Group 1 ceramics show a connection with the weathering of quartz-diorite intrusions in the northwest part of the island and suggest the exploitation of multiple, geographically close sources with similar compositions. Group 2 ceramics are related to clay sources found in the southeast of Aruba, with a mixed geological composition, including limestone, volcanic tuff and quartz-diorite. In contrast, Group 3 ceramics are mostly decorated and belong to the Early Urumaco Period. They display a distinct composition characterized by a calcareous matrix with clay pellets, clay streaks and the presence of shell fragments added as temper. The extensive clay preparation practice leaves uncertainties concerning the origin of ceramics from Group 3. The study also highlights clay selection and use patterns, indicating that different clay sources were interchangeably utilized by communities across Aruba.</p>","PeriodicalId":55117,"journal":{"name":"Geoarchaeology-An International Journal","volume":"39 6","pages":"609-627"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/gea.22017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141501097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cees W. Passchier, Gül Sürmelihindi, Pierre-Louis Viollet, Philippe Leveau, Christoph Spötl
{"title":"Operation and decline of the Barbegal mill complex, the largest industrial complex of antiquity","authors":"Cees W. Passchier, Gül Sürmelihindi, Pierre-Louis Viollet, Philippe Leveau, Christoph Spötl","doi":"10.1002/gea.22016","DOIUrl":"10.1002/gea.22016","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Roman mill complex of Barbegal in France is the largest preindustrial structure in Europe. Carbonate incrustations that formed from water flowing through basins, over flumes and waterwheels of the mill complex are partly preserved. The largest carbonate fragments are derived from three wooden flumes that once served the wheels of three mills in a train of eight. The deposits formed from the same water as it moved down from mill to mill. The shape, microstratigraphy and stable isotope patterns of the deposits of each flume reveal a unique history of use for each mill during the last 8 years of operation until their final abandonment. The sidewall carbonate deposits of the flumes vary in shape due to differences in the slope of the flumes during operation, associated with different-size millwheels in different basins. At least one of the flumes must have been mobile and was uplifted to fit a millwheel of a different size. During 8 years, two millwheels were exchanged and one flume was taken out of action. Carbonate deposits from two flumes were subsequently reused for some unknown industrial purpose in a water basin, and one was later embedded as spolia in a building during late antiquity.</p>","PeriodicalId":55117,"journal":{"name":"Geoarchaeology-An International Journal","volume":"39 6","pages":"594-608"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/gea.22016","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141528765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Provenance study of marble artifacts from the Berenike (Egypt) archaeological site based on petrographic and isotopic data","authors":"Maciej J. Bojanowski, Sara Mandera, Iwona Zych","doi":"10.1002/gea.22015","DOIUrl":"10.1002/gea.22015","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Fragments of marble revetment and floor slabs as well as some broken statuary and vessels were recovered from the excavation of a Roman temple in the harbor town of Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. Petrographic analyses, including optical, cathodoluminescence, and scanning electron microscopy as well as isotopic analyses (δ<sup>13</sup>C, δ<sup>18</sup>O, <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr), were conducted to determine the provenance of the marble. The aim was to reconstruct the commercial ties that led to this prized building stone being brought to Berenike. Most, if not all, of the slabs are of banded gray to white marble showing properties indicative of a Prokonnesian origin. This marble, exploited on Marmara Island (Sea of Marmara, Turkey) and extensively utilized throughout the Mediterranean, including Egypt from at least the second century A.D., might have been procured from the marble depots in Alexandria. This could have involved engaging a team of Bithynian master craftsmen for the project, presumably to embellish the main temple of the city during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian. The statuary and vessel finds are composed of white marble representing several sources. Some coarse-grained specimens were surely extracted in Prokonnesos. For others, the source is uncertain and the likely candidates are Prokonnesos, Paros (Cyclades, Aegean Sea), and Ephesos (Aegean coast of Asia Minor). The fine-grained varieties represented high-quality Dokimian (Afyon region, Asia Minor) and most likely expensive Parian (<i>lychnites</i> type) marble. Marble from the ancient Gebel Rokham quarries in Egypt was also examined for comparison, but its properties have excluded this source in the case of the marble artifacts from Berenike analyzed in this work.</p>","PeriodicalId":55117,"journal":{"name":"Geoarchaeology-An International Journal","volume":"39 6","pages":"576-593"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141336388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The geoarchaeology of a terraced landscape: From Aztec Matlatinco to modern Calixtlahuaca By \u0000 Aleksander Borejsza, \u0000 Isabel Rodríguez López, \u0000 Charles D. Frederick, and \u0000 Michael E. Smith, \u0000Salt Lake City: \u0000University of Utah Press. \u0000 2021. pp. \u0000 370. $85 (hardback)","authors":"Antony G. Brown","doi":"10.1002/gea.22007","DOIUrl":"10.1002/gea.22007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55117,"journal":{"name":"Geoarchaeology-An International Journal","volume":"39 6","pages":"574-575"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140798936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}