No abstract

Ten prehistoric Comb Ceramic vessels found near Kotka have been studied with the aid of AAS and diatom analysis. Correspondence between stylistic and decorative groupings show that the variation in the elements determined by AAS is apparently due to the coarse sand temper added to the clay during the actual manufacture of the vessels. The composition of the Pit and Comb Ware vessel differs considerably from the others, the ornamentation suggesting East Karelian provenience. The diatom flora in the clay material of the vessels corresponds to the stylistic classification. The raw material was apparently either glacial or fresh water clay, whose technical properties correspond to those of clay in modern tile production.

andÁrpád Z. Kiss a Particle-induced X-ray emission method was applied for the determination of light and heavy elemental composition of archaeological glass seals. Quantitative information on the major, minor and trace elements and their correlations in respect of the raw materials which were used for the glass manufacturing are discussed. Although the differences of the elemental concentrations between the seals originating from different glassworks were small, discriminant analysis enabled the separation of glassworks to an extent which makes future provenance studies feasible. The need of supplementary use of energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence and proton-induced gamma-ray emission for the glass samples was also investigated.