Provenance of glass shards in archaeological lime plasters by LA-ICP-MS: implications for the ancient routes from the Gulf of Mexico to Teotihuacan in Central Mexico

Materiality, regimes of value, and the politics of craft production, exchange, and consumption: A case of lime plaster at Teotihuacan, Mexico

“…The size of volcanic ash varies to a great extent from around 10 µm (0.01 mm) to nearly 1 mm, and particles of various sizes were mixed (thus no sorting). Recent sourcing analysis suggests that volcanic ash was imported from Altotonga, Veracruz (Barca et al, 2013). Along with volcanic ash, other materials such as feldspar and quartz sands were used as an aggregate, but to a lesser extent.…”

“…The use of different materials for aggregate may indicate the existence of multiple recipes of plaster making (see Abrams, 1996). At Teotihuacan, quartz, feldspar, amphibole, and limestone were mainly used for aggregate (Barba et al, 2009;Barca et al, 2013;Magaloni, 2 There are other variables that indicate diffrential quality of lime plaster, including slaking procedure, but they are often difficult to identify technically or to correalte with the quality (Schreiner, 2002;Hansen, 2000). Slaking lime forms the second step of lime production, and water is added to quicklime to create slaked lime or hydrated lime (carbon hydroxide, Ca(OH)2).…”

“…It seems likely that some kind of state intervention to secure the supply of lime was necessary, such as the establishment or strengthening of tribute systems through secondary administrative centers. Moreover, volcanic ash that was used as an aggregate during the Early Xolalpan phase was also a non-local resource, probably from Veracruz (Barca et al, 2013), which required further investment in its transportation. Procurement would have been facilitated or sponsored by the state, either through trade or tribute.…”

Proceedings of the International Conference LACONA XI

“…Transient signals were recorded and evaluated for elemental quantification. Ga, 85 Rb, 88 Sr, 89 Y, 90 Zr, 93 Nb, 118 Sn, 121 Sb, 137 Ba, 139 La, 140 Ce, 141 Pr, 142 Nd, 152 Sm, 153 Eu, 158 Gd, 159 Tb, 164 Dy, 165 Ho, 166 Er, 169 Tm, 174 Yb, 175 Lu, 178 Hf, NIST SRM 610 [17] and Corning D archeological glass [18] were used as the external standard for modern and medieval objects respectively. The results of elemental composition, for all samples, were recalculated to the content of the oxides using SiO 2 as the internal standard.…”

LA-ICP-MS analysis of corroded glass beads from Southern China: tackling highly inhomogeneous archaeological glass

“…Now it has received wide acceptance especially for analyzing vitreous materials such as obsidian, glasses and ceramic glaze (e.g. Gratuze (1999); Shortland, Rogers, and Eremin (2007); Dussubieux et al (2008); Walton et al (2009); Barca et al (2013); Varberg, Gratuze, and Kaul (2015)). Like many other types of instrumentation, the experimental protocols, analytic procedures and calibration methods of LA-ICP-MS are mainly designed for and utilized by geo-scientists.…”