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A Decade of Portable (Hand-Held) X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer Analysis of Obsidian in the Mediterranean: Many Advantages and Few Limitations

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Abstract

Starting in 2007, a portable, hand-held X-ray fluorescence spectrometer was used to elementally analyze and determine the geological source of obsidian artifacts in the Mediterranean, effectively replacing the instruments used in my previous research studies - INAA, LA-ICP-MS, ED-XRF and an electron microprobe with WDS. Approximately 400 geological obsidian samples from the Mediterranean area, and 8500 obsidian artifacts from prehistoric sites in Italy, France, Croatia, Malta, Tunisia, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt have been analyzed non-destructively by pXRF. Overall, the pXRF can distinguish all of the individual sources, based on the composition of Fe and trace elements Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, and Nb, as well as assign most artifacts to specific subsources and thus addressing archaeological research hypotheses about trade and exchange in many different time periods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, 33620, FL, USA

    Robert H. Tykot

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Correspondence to Robert H. Tykot.

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Tykot, R.H. A Decade of Portable (Hand-Held) X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer Analysis of Obsidian in the Mediterranean: Many Advantages and Few Limitations. MRS Advances 2, 1769–1784 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2017.148

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