Well Built Mycenae Fascicule 34.1: Technical Reports. The Results of Neutron Activation Analysis of Mycenaean Pottery

Elizabeth B. French & Jonathan E. Tomlinson (with contributions by S. M. A. Hoffman, †V. J. Robinson & R. E. Jones)

City: Oxford

Year: 2013

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Series: Well Built Mycenae 34.1

Description: Paperback, 61 p., 24,3x16,9 cm, DVD included

Abstract

Since 1890 when Sir Flinders Petrie first realised the importance of the Aegean pottery he had found in Egypt further discoveries of these wares have been noted with more than superficial interest. Early studies, however, right up to the mid 20th century, had to be based on stylistic, and thus often subjective, criteria. It is only more recently with the development of a range of scientific techniques that it has become possible to make serious attempts to ascertain the exact sources of this imported pottery. A key factor in this work has been the establishment of data banks by which to define the various possible sites of origin. Samples from Mycenae, as one of the key nodes of Late Bronze Age trade, were taken both as part of the initial programme of research by the Research Laboratory at Oxford and then in the wider projects carried out in the Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley, by Professors Frank Asaro and Isadore Perlman and by the Department of Nuclear Chemistry of the University of Manchester. Though the results of these studies have been made public and widely used, the full details pertaining to the core area of the Argo-Corinthia have never been published. This fascicule of the Well Built Mycenae series presents for the first time the raw data as well as the statistical analyses based on it and assesses the impact of the various methods on the archaeological value of the research. Thus by giving an outline of the relation between these results and the on-going archaeological work at Mycenae and in the surrounding area we can see into which fields of study future work should be directed. Includes a DVD with accompanying material for 34.1 and all previous fascicules.

Contents

PART I

Introduction and history of research concerning the Argolid (E. B. French) [1]

PART II

The Problem of the North East Peloponnese and Progress to its Solution: Effects of Measurement Errors and Element-Element Correlations in Defining Ceramic Reference Groups (S. M. A. Hoffmann and †V. J. Robinson with R. E. Jones and E. B. French) [5]

1. Introduction [5]
2. Potential limitations in defining site composition groups [7]
3. Choice of statistical procedure [8]
4. Results and discussion: statistical analysis of the Asaro/Perlman data [10]
5. Summary and conclusions [16]
Appendix 2.1 [17]

PART III

Statistical Analysis of Neutron Activation Data on Mycenaean Pottery from the Argolid and Corinthia (Jonathan E. Tomlinson) [23]

1. Introduction [23]
2. Analysis procedures [24]
3. Results [24]
4. Discussion [31]
Appendix 3.1. Chemical profiles of groups [33]

PART IV

A Comparison of the Chemical Groupings of the Manchester and Bonn Laboratories (Jonathan E. Tomlinson) [37]

1. Preamble [37]
2. Comparison of the respective groupings [37]
3. An examination of differences in the respective groupings [39]

PART V

Archaeological Assessment (E. B. French) [47]

Bibliography [57]