Speaker
Prof.
M. Isabel PRUDÊNCIO
(Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, CAMPUS TECNOLÓGICO E NUCLEAR, INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TÉCNICO)
Description
The Perdigões archaeological site is one of the largest known Portuguese Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic ditched enclosures (Neolithic and Chalcolithic) in southern Portugal. A variety of exogenous objects such as pottery, lithic artefacts, stone and bone and ivory idols, pectin shells, were found during excavations of several funerary contexts. In this work small stone vases from these funerary environments were studied by prompt-gamma activation analysis (PGAA), neutron radiography and external milli-beam particle induced X-ray emission spectroscopy (PIXE) at the Budapest Neutron Center. In addition, several samples from carbonated rocks quarries of central and southern Portugal were analyzed by using the same methods aiming the identification of the geographic region of the raw materials that were used to produce these objects thus contributing to the understanding of the interaction network in which Perdigões was involved (Dias et al., 2017).
The macroscopic observation of the vases showed a porous whitish stone. The outlier layers present a brownish colour, certainly the result of alteration during burial. Also in the interior of the vases brownish aggregations of soil particles and bones remains were found.
The chemical composition obtained by PGAA enhances the calcite rich material constituent of the vases. PIXE analyses in different points (whitish, brownish and aggregates), showed an enrichment of Si, K, Ti, Fe and Zn in the outer layers; the brownish terrigenous material has higher content of P, certainly due to the bones contribution. In addition, iron enrichment was found in some points of these terrigenous materials. Neutron radiography allowed to accurately visualizing the vase morphology.
The chemical composition obtained for the archaeological stone vases and local and regional raw materials point to the resource of Estremadura limestones (Central-western Portugal), pointing to long distance provenance of the vases production.
It is important to enhance the significant results obtained for the archaeological discussion of Perdigões interaction network during Chalcolithic, by using non-destructive neutron techniques.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the CHARISMA project co-funded by the European Commission within the action 'Research Infrastructures' of the 'Capacities', at Budapest Neutron Center, GA No. FP7- 228330. C2TN/IST authors also gratefully acknowledge the FCT support through the UID/Multi/04349/2013 project.
Reference
Dias MI, Kasztovszky Zs, Prudêncio MI, Valera AC, Maróti B, Harsányi I, Kovács I, Szokefalvi-Nagy Z (2017): X-ray and neutron-based non-invasive analysis of prehistoric stone artefacts: a contribution to understand mobility and interaction networks, Archaeological And Anthropological Sciences 9: pp. 1-15.
Primary author
Prof.
M. Isabel PRUDÊNCIO
(Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, CAMPUS TECNOLÓGICO E NUCLEAR, INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TÉCNICO)
Co-authors
Dr
A.C. VALERA
(Era Arqueologia, Núcleo de Investigação Arqueológica – NIA. Cç. de Santa Catarina, 9C, 1495-705 Cruz Quebrada – Dafundo – Portugal. Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArHEB, Universidade do Algarve, Campo de Gambelas, Faro, Portugal)
Dr
B. Maróti
(Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.)
Dr
I. Harsányi
(Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.)
Dr
I. Kovács
(Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.)
Prof.
M. Isabel Dias
(Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, CAMPUS TECNOLÓGICO E NUCLEAR, INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TÉCNICO)
Prof.
Z. Szőkefalvi-Nagy
(Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.)
Dr
Zsolt Kasztovszky
(MTA Centre for Energy Research)
