Provenance Studies and Beyond

Abstract

Provenancing of ceramics, i.e. the establishment of a ceramics physical origin, greatly enhances our understanding of ancient civilizations, their cultural development, exchange and movement patterns. Basing provenance studies on objectively measureable and reproducible data like the chemical composition of the material offers important insights in this respect. Various multivariate statistical methods are in use to analyse the large datasets produced by analytical methods like Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). Of those statistical methods, a well established method using a modified Mahalanobis Distance that takes measurement errors as well as dilution effects (best relative fit factors) into account has repeatedly proven its usefulness specifically for the provenancing of ancient ceramics. Three examples from recent studies, two from East Asia and one from Northeast Africa show what the combination of NAA and this statistical approach can provide beyond simple establishment of a ceramic sample’s origin.