Vorträge - Universität Salzburg

Abstracts Primus Conventus Austriacus Archaeometriae - MMIX
Sediment Studies in the Troad for Provenance of Troian Pottery
C. Morales-Merino 1,2 , E. Pernicka 1 & M. Balcazar-García 2
1
Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie GmbH, An-Institut der Universität Tübingen, D6, 3, 68159 Mannheim
carlos.morales-merino@cez-archaeometrie.de
2
Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares, México.
The concept of provenance in archaeology is used to denote the findspot of an object or to
imply the source of manufacture of an artefact in very general terms. Provenance studies of
ceramics, along with those on metals, probably account for the vast majority of all studies
undertaken. Besides its abundance at archaeological sites, pottery has several microscopic
properties of interest to archaeologist. For example, the trace element composition can be
used to locate the sources of ingredients or provide evidence of geographical displacement.
Troian pottery has been frequently studied but many unanswered questions still remain about
their origin. The primary question is whether there is a possible common origin of the
different pottery types founded. Was the ware transported to Troia or do we have to do with
transfer of technology and the pottery was made from local material?
For this purpose more than 300 sediment samples were collected within a radius of 5 Km
around Troia. The samples were analysed by Neutron Activation Analysis and a multivariate
treatment of the data was made to determine differences or similarities between clay deposits.
The results provide mineralogical and chemical knowledge from which to interpret the
variability of ceramic data. Regional trends in trace element composition of the sediments
were observed (like As and Sb content). Those results enable the assignment of a ceramic
compositional profile to the zone of origin within the region.
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