Abstract

Northern Fennoscandia is a geologically complex region affected by both glacial and postglacial processes. Quartzite was a key material type utilized by hunter-gatherers in Northern Sweden around the period 4 000 - 2 000 BP, and is thus critical to the understanding of raw material procurement and material flow within the region. However, there is a severe lack of methodological development in the characterization of these materials, and provenance of locally available geological material is complex and fraught with uncertainty. 126 quartz/ quartzite points and preforms were sampled from 47 archaeological sites along the upper angstrom ngerman river valley in Va center dot sterbotten, Sweden. The material has been analysed non-destructively using three separate portable spectroscopic instrumentations (Near-infrared, Raman, X -Ray Fluorescence). Evaluation of the spectra and exploratory data analysis using Principal Component Analysis demonstrates detectable differences in the material that likely stem from diagenetic/paragenetic origin. The presence of graphite, muscovite and biotite could likewise provide information on the material's metamorphic grade. In addition to reaffirming the potential of field -based screening instrumentation, these results will benefit future surveys of geological sources in the region. They also indicate potential for the construction of a predictive model that could classify the quartzite based on its chemical characteristic. Such a model would prove useful in future spatial analysis and testing of models of raw material management.

Keywords

Hunter-Gatherer; Lithics; Provenance; Quartzite; Vibrational spectroscopy; Scandinavia

Published in

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
2024, Volume: 53, article number: 104381
Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• Geladi, Paul

  • Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Archaeology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104381

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/128930