Ion Beam Analysis of Microcrystalline Quartz Artifacts from the Reed Mound Site, Delaware County, Oklahoma

Abstract

Ion beam analysis (IBA) has been a powerful, non-destructive tool for archaeological research worldwide for over four decades, yet its full potential is seldom realized in North American archaeology. Herein the potential of particle induced X-ray emission spectrometry (PIXE) as a tool for future Ozarks chert provenance studies is evaluated based on its ability to facilitate (1) discrimination of Ozarks chert materials from different geological formations and (2) identification of discrete groups of artifacts from the same geological formation. In addition, PIXE was also used to evaluate the elemental heterogeneity of Ozarks chert materials. Thirty chert (microcrystalline quartz) artifacts were visually sorted and classified according to macroscopic features characteristic of certain chert resources from particular Ozarks geological formations. The elemental concentrations obtained from PIXE analysis underwent multivariate statistical analyses in order to gain insight from the data. The results indicate that PIXE could be a useful tool for assigning Ozarks chert materials to their respective geological formations, and possibly for determining regional or sub-regional provenance.

Standardless semi-quantitative analysis by PIXE

“…The most versatile and used quantification software packages are GeoPIXE and GUPIX. The first one was optimized for its application in the field of geoscience and was extended for map acquisition and quantification by microPIXE [21][22][23][24] . The second one has been used to study different kinds of materials [25][26][27][28] , and from its creation, different modifications were performed, which are related to the user interface [11][12][13] , the physical parameter databases 12,14 , and the detection efficiency correction procedures 14 .…”