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A Review of Methods to Analyze Archaeological Lime Production: Investigating Raw Materials Selection and Firing Conditions

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Abstract

Lime-based materials are found in archaeological contexts across many world regions. The earliest evidence of lime production was discovered in the Levant dating to about 16,000 cal BP. Methods for transforming limestone, shells, and corals into slaked lime varied depending on region, culture, and period. Similarly, the use of lime had an extensive variation of applications such as hafting, plastering, mortars, flooring, plastering skulls, decorating, and making frescos. Each step of the lime production process—from raw materials sourcing to the mixing of finished materials—results in specific archaeological assemblages, each capable of delivering critical insight into the knowledge of the people who created them. Here, we review approaches and methodologies used to analyze each production step, and, specifically, those targeting raw materials selection and firing conditions. For investigating effectively raw materials selection and firing conditions of archaeological lime-based materials, we propose a methodological approach based on the integration of petrography and Fourier transform infrared microscopy (mFTIR) that uses chemical and mineralogical reference libraries prepared using experimental lime produced with provenienced raw materials.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Kevin Fisher and Cathy D’Andrea for providing comments, Joe Uziel for providing mortar samples from Wilson’s Arch, and Michael Toffolo for providing the micrographs presented in Figs. 2 and 3. We are also grateful for the suggestions of the anonymous reviewers, whose input improved this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund and the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund no. 40800.

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  1. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

    Hannah M. Herrick & Francesco Berna

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  1. Hannah M. Herrick
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HH and FB both contributed to the manuscript outline and premise. HH wrote the majority of the manuscript text, with FB contributing some text in all sections, and both authors reviewed the manuscript. HH prepared Figs. 1 and 4; FB prepared Figs. 2 and 3. FB wrote all figure captions and the abstract text. HH compiled the supplementary table.

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Herrick, H.M., Berna, F. A Review of Methods to Analyze Archaeological Lime Production: Investigating Raw Materials Selection and Firing Conditions. J Archaeol Method Theory (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-024-09652-x

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