Strontium isotope analysis in ancient glass from South Asia using portable laser ablation sampling

Abstract

In order to carry out strontium (Sr) isotope analysis, glass artefacts from South Asia were sampled with portable laser ablation (pLA), a relatively novel sampling technique that leaves damage invisible to the naked eye. Subsequently, thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) was used to obtain Sr isotope ratios after sample dissolution and separation. In this study, the goal was twofold: to determine whether the measurements of Sr isotope ratios were impacted by using a portable laser as a sample tool; and to assess the pertinence of using Sr isotope ratios to provenance Indian glass. Despite a deterioration in the precision of the measurement of the Sr isotope ratios for artefacts sampled with pLA compared with the traditional sampling method, the Sr isotope ratios of certain Indian glass are so different that this does not affect their separation but a comparison of data sets obtained using standard methods and pLA might be challenging.

Overseas imports on the Blue Nile: Chemical compositional analysis of glass beads from Soba, Nubia

“…The mineral–soda high alumina glass 6 (m‐Na‐Al 6) has been identified only recently. Like all other m‐Na‐Al glasses, it is assumed to have been manufactured in India, although no tangible archaeological evidence confirms this; however, the fairly high Sr isotope ratio measured for this glass (Seman et al, 2021) matches the Sr isotope signatures found in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Northern India. The m‐Na‐Al 6 glass was identified based on material found on the eastern coast of Africa at sites dated to between the ninth and 13th centuries CE.…”

Characterization of Glass, Shell, and Fishbone Beads on Ibo Island (Northern Mozambique) in the Context of the Indian Ocean Trade

“…The m-Na-Al 6 group has been identified in sites on eastern and southern Africa. Due to compositional similarities with the m-Na-Al 2 group, a provenance from the west coast of India has been likewise suggested (Seman et al 2021).…”

Artefact Profiling: Panomics Approaches for Understanding the Materiality of Written Artefacts

“…However, compared to laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), which is quite similar in terms of sampling technique, and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements, the limits of detection achieved using this approach are in the lower ranges (see Section 6.1 ) [ 88 , 89 , 90 ]. In the meantime, there are some successful application examples of this portable laser system which have been carried out on antique objects such as archaeological silver, antique glass beads, or various gold objects [ 91 , 92 , 93 ].…”