Using a Portable Spectrometer to Source Archaeological Materials and to Detect Restorations in Museum Objects

Wisseman, Sarah U.; Emerson, Thomas E.; Hynes, Mary R.; Hughes, Robert

doi:10.1179/019713604806082519

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…This work helped establish a solid reference database for Midwestern pipestones that can be used for future artifact sourcing. Many of our results have been published previously (e.g., Hughes et al, 1998;Hughes, 2000, 2001;Emerson et al, 2002Emerson et al, , 2003Emerson et al, , 2004Emerson et al, , 2005aWisseman et al, 2002Wisseman et al, , 2004Wisseman et al, , 2011. In this paper, we present how NIS (PIMA) works for sourcing pipestones, the dominant mineral composition of the major pipestone sources, and the current state of our knowledge on pipestone geology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Refining the identification of native American pipestone quarries in the midcontinental United States

Wisseman¹,

Hughes²,

Emerson³

et al. 2012

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Refining the identification of native American pipestone quarries in the midcontinental United States

Wisseman¹,

Hughes²,

Emerson³

et al. 2012

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…In additional advance in linking pipestone quarry materials and artifacts was provided by two NSF grants to develop and refine the archaeometric use of PIMA technology. The portable, non-destructive capabilities allowed the instrument to be used both in the field and in the museum (Wisseman et al., 2004). PIMA is a “shoebox-size,'' short-wave length infrared, reflectance spectrometer (Emerson et al., 2003; Hynes et al., 2001; Wisseman et al., 2002, 2010, 2011, 2012).…”

Section: Sourcing Pipestonementioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying animate stones and sacred landscapes: Twenty-five years of native pipestone-quarries research in the American midcontinent

Emerson

Hughes

Farnsworth

et al. 2020

North American Archaeologist

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This paper assesses our current understanding of the native use of the major midcontinental United States pipestone quarries based on over two decades of research. Our studies indicate that combining chemical and mineralogical techniques such as shortwave infrared spectroscopy (SWIS), thin-section petrography, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) have identified pipestones with similar chemical compositions containing distinctive mineralogical suites (often including berthierine, kaolinite, diaspore, muscovite, and pyrophyllite). This research has identified unique mineral compositions at known quarries such as catlinite, Ohio Feurt Hill, Baraboo, and Barron pipestones, as well as identifying previously unknown quarries of Sterling Illinois pipestone, Cahokia Missouri flint clay, and Portsmouth Ohio Claystone. These discoveries have led to a major shift in interpretations of Cahokian and Hopewell pipe exchange. Further examination of native ethnographic quarry use identified the primary attraction of pipestone quarries lay in the perceived ritual and spiritual power of the stone rather than in its economic utility.

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VNIR–SWIR reflectance spectroscopy as a nondestructive technique for compositional determination of archaeological talc samples with a machine learning approach

Ferrer-Julià,

Quirós,

Herrero-Alonso

et al. 2024

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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The material from which an archaeological piece is made provides a great deal of information regarding the society in which it was made; thus, any misidentification can lead to erroneous conclusions. The uniqueness of many of these pieces hinders their mineralogical analysis because the pieces cannot be damaged for sampling; therefore, errors in the classification of these materials are common. In the present study, we evaluate the suitability of the spectroradiometry technique in the analysis of two archaeological talc pieces. Both came from the Iron Age archaeological site of Peña del Castro (La Ercina, León) in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula. We compared the spectral curves of these 2 pieces with the spectral curves from 50 talc geological samples from different geographical sources, combining bulk and powdered samples. Our results show that spectral curves enabled the identification of the talc material in the powdered and bulk samples. Moreover, the absence of the talc characteristic features in other soft materials also used in antiquity enabled the detection of incorrect identification of the classified pieces. Even though our results cannot be used to define any absorption feature characteristic to establish the provenance of the material, in the present study, spectral analysis has been shown to be suitable as a nondestructive technique to mineralogically identify archaeological pieces.

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Using a Portable Spectrometer to Source Archaeological Materials and to Detect Restorations in Museum Objects

Cited by 7 publications

References 6 publications

Refining the identification of native American pipestone quarries in the midcontinental United States

Refining the identification of native American pipestone quarries in the midcontinental United States

Identifying animate stones and sacred landscapes: Twenty-five years of native pipestone-quarries research in the American midcontinent

VNIR–SWIR reflectance spectroscopy as a nondestructive technique for compositional determination of archaeological talc samples with a machine learning approach

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