Indirect chronology method employing rare earth elements to identify Sagunto Castle mortar construction periods
A novel indirect chronology method has been developed to identify Sagunto Castle construction periods. The method is based on the use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine rare earth elements (REE) and other trace elements in mortars. Additionally, a no destructive geochemical analysis based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was employed for major elements determination. Collected chemical data were processed through Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to highlight any differences among the mortars belonging to different buildings and construction periods. The results show that PCA analysis permits to discriminate construction periods according to mortar sample REE …
Characterisation and Provenance of Archaeological Lithic Materials by Chemical Methods
Esta tesis doctoral se ha realizado mediante un compendio de cinco trabajos publicados en revistas internacionales indexadas que incluyen los estudios arqueométricos de caracterización química llevados a cabo sobre los materiales arqueológicos de tipo lítico siguientes: las materias primas silíceas de la Comunidad Valenciana y los artefactos en sílex de la Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, Valencia), los materiales de construcción de la antigua ciudad de Sagunto y de su Castillo (morteros y sillares de roca carbonatada), y las ánforas conservadas en el Museo Arqueológico de Sagunto. En todos los estudios hemos desarrollado y optimizado enfoques basados en la caracterización de los materiales a…
Chert Nucleus and Cortex Characterization for Archaeological Provenance Study Tested in the Prebaetic System Region (Valencian Community, Spain)
The characterization of chert artifacts and the identification of their raw material is a pivotal issue in archaeology for the comprehension of economic and territorial patterns related to prehisto...
Analysis of stratigraphical sequences at Cocina Cave (Spain) using rare earth elements geochemistry
This study investigates the stratigraphical sequence of Cocina Cave (Spain) employing and testing for the first time the capability of rare earth elements as markers of human activities in caves. Located in Dos Aguas (Valencian Community, Spain), Cocina Cave is characterized by the presence of several Holocene archaeological deposits from the final Mesolithic to the present day and is a pivotal site for understanding the socio‐ecological dynamics of the last hunter‐gatherer inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula and the transition to pastoral and agricultural economies in the Western Mediterranean. However, the identification of strata from particular time‐periods in the cave is often difficu…
Chemical and mineralogical analyses on stones from Sagunto Castle (Spain)
Abstract For the first time, an archaeometric study was carried out on the carbonate rock ashlars of the Sagunto Castle. The studied site is one of the most important and best preserved Spanish archaeological and architectural monuments, characterized by different construction phases from the Roman period to Modern Ages. Forty samples collected from thirteen different structures of Sagunto Castle and two quarries, located in the Sagunto's hill were used for comparative purposes. The samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to determine their mineralogical and elemental composition. The obtained data show similar chemical…
An innovative multi-analytical approach based on spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques to study a complex Roman amphorae collection
Abstract An innovative multi-analytical approach for the classification of ancient pottery sherds was tested. Twenty Roman amphorae fragments belonging to different known typologies and twenty-seven unclassified ones from a complex Sagunto Archaeological Museum (Spain) collection were studied by multielement analysis (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry), Fourier-transform near infrared spectroscopy and voltammetry of immobilized microparticles employing a minimal amount of sample. Chemometric analysis based on principal component analysis allowed the identification of most of the unclassified samples, proving the importance and reliability of th…
Actuación arqueológica en los depósitos mesolíticos de Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, Valencia) : valoración preliminar
Social and technological changes in the ceramic production of the Northern Levant during the LBA/IA transition: New evidence about the Sea People issue through archaeometry
Abstract The transition from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) to the Iron Age (IA) in the Levant is marked by the collapse of the Egyptian and Hittite empires, which dominated the political scene of the 14th–13th century BCE. The role of the Sea People, groups of migrants who were defeated by the Egyptian king Ramses III around 1175 BCE, is the focal point concerning this period. After the collapse of the LBA empires, written sources disappeared, and the archaeologists’ primary tool to define cultural processes is to analyze the evolution of pottery. Because of this, studies about the distribution of Aegeanizing ceramic production, considered here to have derived from the Sea People culture, can p…
Ceramic productions and human interactions during the Early Bronze Age in northern Iberia
The Early Bronze Age ceramic collection found into the caves of La Llana and El Toral III in Asturias (Spain) presents common decoration such as that found in the centre of Cantabrian Spain from the same period, which resembles others found in the Ebro Valley and Atlantic Europe. Therefore, the main objective of this study it is to identify the raw material origin and understand the pottery production process during the Early Bronze Age in the Cantabrian region. A methodological approach based on the chemical and mineralogical analysis of vessels and experimentally fired clay samples collected all over the centre of this region was developed. Furthermore, the post-depositional processes aff…