TY - JOUR
T1 - Using X-ray fluorescence to examine ancient Maya granite ground stone in Belize
AU - Tibbits, Tawny L.B.
AU - Peuramaki-Brown, Meaghan M.
AU - Brouwer Burg, Marieka
AU - Tibbits, Matthew A.
AU - Harrison-Buck, Eleanor
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Geoarchaeology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
PY - 2023/3/1
Y1 - 2023/3/1
N2 - While ubiquitous among ancient Maya sites in Mesoamerica, archaeological analysts frequently overlook the interpretive potential of ground stone tools. The ancient Maya often made these heavy, bulky tools of coarse-grained, heterogeneous materials that are difficult to chemically source, unlike obsidian. This paper describes an application of handheld, energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to provenance ground stone artifacts (tools and architectural blocks) composed of granite: a nonhomogenous, phaneritic stone. We present a multicomponent methodology that independently tested whole-rock, thin-sectioned, and powdered samples by petrographic microscope, conventional, lab-based XRF, and portable XRF units, which yielded comparable results. After establishing distinct geochemical signatures for the three geographically restricted granite plutons in Belize, we devised a field-based XRF application on a whole rock that could replicate the compositional readings of lab-based XRF on powdered materials with sufficient accuracy and reliability. We applied this multishot XRF technique to granite ground stone items from a range of ancient Maya sites throughout Belize; we discuss two specific case studies herein. Our results underscore the widespread potential of multishot XRF applications for determining the provenance of coarse-grained, heterogeneous rock materials. These results can help push the boundaries from one-dimensional, functional explanations of ground stone items to their social and ideological dimensions, alongside deeper understandings of granite resource management.
AB - While ubiquitous among ancient Maya sites in Mesoamerica, archaeological analysts frequently overlook the interpretive potential of ground stone tools. The ancient Maya often made these heavy, bulky tools of coarse-grained, heterogeneous materials that are difficult to chemically source, unlike obsidian. This paper describes an application of handheld, energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to provenance ground stone artifacts (tools and architectural blocks) composed of granite: a nonhomogenous, phaneritic stone. We present a multicomponent methodology that independently tested whole-rock, thin-sectioned, and powdered samples by petrographic microscope, conventional, lab-based XRF, and portable XRF units, which yielded comparable results. After establishing distinct geochemical signatures for the three geographically restricted granite plutons in Belize, we devised a field-based XRF application on a whole rock that could replicate the compositional readings of lab-based XRF on powdered materials with sufficient accuracy and reliability. We applied this multishot XRF technique to granite ground stone items from a range of ancient Maya sites throughout Belize; we discuss two specific case studies herein. Our results underscore the widespread potential of multishot XRF applications for determining the provenance of coarse-grained, heterogeneous rock materials. These results can help push the boundaries from one-dimensional, functional explanations of ground stone items to their social and ideological dimensions, alongside deeper understandings of granite resource management.
KW - Belize
KW - XRF
KW - ancient Maya
KW - granite
KW - ground stone
KW - provenance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143499694&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/gea.21944
DO - 10.1002/gea.21944
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:85143499694
SN - 0883-6353
VL - 38
SP - 156
EP - 173
JO - Geoarchaeology
JF - Geoarchaeology
IS - 2
ER -