Radioactive fossils: The uranium anomaly and its paleobiological implications

Novel method of ancient pottery analysis based on radioactive isotope ratios: a pilot study

“…Potassium is derived from potassium feldspar, mica and clay minerals. Thorium occurs in clay minerals and heavy minerals, while elevated uranium contents are found in rocks containing phosphates, alumino-silicates or even organic substances [17]. The relationships between mineral composition and the content of radioactive elements allowed the development of model measurements for the natural radioactivity and the mineral composition in ceramics [18,19] and natural geological structures [20], which confirm the usefulness of this new method of archaeometric research.…”

“…A high K content indicates a high proportion of clay in the semi-finished product [36]. U correlates with aluminosilicates or organic components [17,47], while Th is an index of metal-rich heavy minerals [48]. Using these relationships, it is possible to assess possible groupings of results through the ratios of the content of elements.…”

“…For background reduction, a unique passive system based on 20 mm of steel, 100 mm of 'spectrometric' lead, additionally padded with 5 mm of low activity < 6 Bq/ kg of 210 Pb layer (Plombum, Poland), and 5 mm of high purity electrolytic copper. All measurements were taken in the continuously ventilated laboratory room for 222 Rn and its progeny concentration reduction [17,32,33]. AGX3020 HPGe (Canberra) detector model with a relative efficiency of 30%, combined with a 2002CLS (Canberra) an offset preamplifier, was used as a basic detector.…”

“…The methodology of radiometric studies of ancient ceramics is based on low-background and high-resolution gamma radiation spectrometry [17,[32][33][34][35]. The basic element of the method is the use of the natural radionuclides occurring in geological materials, including clays.…”