Lead Isotope Provenance
Lead isotope provenance traces metals — copper, silver, lead, and lead-bearing glazes and pigments — back to the ore deposits from which they were extracted, by measuring the ratios of lead's four naturally occurring isotopes. Three of those isotopes (lead-206, -207, -208) are produced by the slow radioactive decay of uranium and thorium, while lead-204 is primordial, so the isotope ratios of an ore depend on the age and the original uranium, thorium, and lead content of the deposit. These ratios are fixed at the geological scale and are not altered by smelting, so they survive into the finished artifact. As Renfrew and Bahn note in their survey of provenance science, comparing an artifact's lead isotope signature to the isotopic fields of candidate ore deposits can identify, or at least constrain, the source of its metal. The method sits within the broader geoarchaeological toolkit of compositional and isotopic sourcing.
Record di origine
Citazioni copiate testualmente dal record di origine del metodo. Non si inferisce alcuna verifica a livello di affermazione da esse.
- Renfrew, C., & Bahn, P. (2016). Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice (7th ed.). Thames & Hudson. · ISBN 9780500292105
- Shackley, M. S. (Ed.). (2011). X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) in Geoarchaeology. Springer. · DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6886-9
Affermazioni curate
Affermazioni persistite nel registro delle evidenze, ciascuna con la propria valutazione.
Questa vista non inventa una valutazione dell'affermazione quando il registro non ne ha.
Metodi correlati
Generato dal grafo dei metodi e mostrato come relazioni suggerite dalla macchina — nessuna affermazione di evidenza viene inferita.