A new approach to lead isotope ratio data in archaeometry: the flow and recycling of materials and ideas

Conventional lead isotope biplots have proved useful in archaeological science, in particular to provenance the raw materials used in early pyrotechnologies. This approach does not work well, however, in case of anthropogenic mixing and recycling of materials. New approaches to the study of man-made materials have been proposed, looking at changes and similarities in the composition of assemblages, called the flow of ancient materials, rather than focusing on provenance as such. In this project, a new method to study the origin and recycling of materials using lead isotopic data is developed, integrating the principle of flow of materials and kernel density functions. This new technique will be applied to investigate the origin of antimony in the earliest glass and metal industries, and to reconstruct the flow of glass, lead and silver in the Greco-Roman world. Where the former case reconstructs the origin and distribution of a particular raw material, the latter allows to quantify recycling versus the influx of primary, fresh materials through time.

Keywords:archaeological science, isotope geochemistry, kernel density, provenance, lead, pyrotechnology, glass, antimony

Disciplines:Geology not elsewhere classified, Inorganic geochemistry, Archaeological science