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Contributions of LA-ICP-MS to Obsidian Sourcing in the Pacific

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Recent Advances in Laser Ablation ICP-MS for Archaeology

Part of the book series: Natural Science in Archaeology ((ARCHAEOLOGY))

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Abstract

This chapter examines results from the application of LA-ICP-MS to the identification of sources of obsidian artifacts from the Western Pacific. More than 700 analyses of obsidian samples collected at the Australian National University over the past years provide an accurate geochemical dataset for major obsidian source regions in the Western Pacific unambiguously discriminating sources and sub-sources. This dataset is employed to analyze social interaction in the 3000-year timeframe of human occupation of the western Pacific as reflected by variations in lithic raw material sources. Albeit not non-destructive, the minimal sample size necessary, and the precision and accuracy of analysis for a wide range of major, minor, trace and rare earth elements enables LA-ICP-MS to not only geochemically fingerprint archaeological artifacts to known source locations, but also to provide information about general geological contexts from which these objects derived. These additional data have been successfully employed in the past to identify locations of high probability for undetected obsidian outcrops.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The numerous obsidian sources in New Zealand are excluded from this analysis, because of the late colonisation of the island and the limited transportation of New Zealand obsidian into the central and western Pacific.

  2. 2.

    Large-ion lithophile elements (LILEs) and high-field-strength elements (HFSEs) are two categories of elements in geochemistry. Both groups have the tendency to stay in liquid phase during fractionation process in the melt. They are classified by the ratio of their electrostatic potential to their ionic radius, which is informative about the origin of rocks, e.g. abundance of LILEs would indicate continental crusts (Albarède 2003:18).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Society, Culture and Education, James Cook University, 6811, Cairns, QLD, 4870, Australia

    Christian Reepmeyer

  2. Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, H.C. Coombs Building (No. 9), Canberra, 0200, ACT, Australia

    Wallace Ambrose & Geoffrey Clark

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  1. Christian Reepmeyer
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  2. Wallace Ambrose
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  3. Geoffrey Clark
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Correspondence to Christian Reepmeyer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Integrative Research Center, Elemental Analysis Facility, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Laure Dussubieux

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA

    Mark Golitko

  3. Institut de Recherche sur les Archéomatériaux Centre Ernest Babelon, CNRS/Université d’Orléans, Orléans, France

    Bernard Gratuze

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Reepmeyer, C., Ambrose, W., Clark, G. (2016). Contributions of LA-ICP-MS to Obsidian Sourcing in the Pacific. In: Dussubieux, L., Golitko, M., Gratuze, B. (eds) Recent Advances in Laser Ablation ICP-MS for Archaeology. Natural Science in Archaeology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49894-1_10

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