Elemental Composition of Glass Artifacts Excavated from Takht-e Suleiman World Heritage Site and Ardabil Ancient Sites in Northwestern Iran by Micro-PIXE

Abstract

This paper reports and discusses elemental composition results obtained from analysis of 36 glass fragments discovered from the Takht-e Suleiman World Heritage Site and Ardabil historical sites in northwestern Iran. The analyzed samples dating back to Sassanian /Islamic period. The glass objects in this study include decorative objects such as bracelet, pieces of vessels, and indefinites form such as chunk and raw materials, which are in different colors of light and dark green, emerald green, white, purple, turquoise, brown and black. Elemental analysis of these samples was performed using micro-PIXE technique in Van de Graaff Laboratory in the Nuclear Science & Technology Research Institute in Tehran, Iran. By micro-PIXE analysis, the major and minor elements of these glasses were measured. Elements measured in all 36 samples include: sodium oxide (Na2O), magnesium oxide (MgO), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), silicon oxide (SiO2), phosphorus oxide (P2O5), Sulfur oxide (SO3), chlorine (Cl), potassium oxide (K2O), calcium oxide (CaO), titanium oxide (TiO2), manganese oxide (MnO) and iron oxide (Fe2O3). Chromium oxide (Cr2O3), cobalt oxide (CoO), copper oxide (Cu2O), zinc oxide (ZnO), strontium oxide (SrO) and lead oxide (PbO) were also measured in a number of samples. In addition, one sample contains barium oxide (BaO) and two samples contain tin oxide (SnO2) and arsenic oxide (As2O5). According to elemental analysis results, the important questions in technology and manufacturing technique, determining the raw materials used in manufacturing, determining the type of glass as well as investigation of trade and exchange of raw materials about analyzed glasses are answered. Furthermore, to investigate the provenance of artifacts and to determine the differences in the elemental compositions of glass excavated from Takht-e Suleiman World Heritage Site and Ardabil historical sites, our elemental composition results have been combined and compared with the reported results from other sites of the Eastern Mediterranean countries, such as Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and neighboring countries of Iran such as Iraq.