Chemical characterization of ancient pottery from the South-West Amazonia using neutron activation analysis

Abstract

The analyzes carried out in this work aims to contribute to the discussion about the ceramic objects founded in Monte Castelo’s sambaqui located at south-west Amazonia. The first study accomplished by Miller in 1980 suggests that this archaeological site is inserted in the old contexts of production of ceramics in the Amazon. Until today, there are not any physical and chemical analysis studies in this ceramics and this kind of studies may help archaeological studies performed at the sambaqui. With this purpose, this work presents a preliminary study of chemical characterization of eighty-seven ceramic samples using the Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). The analyzed elements were: As, K, La, Lu, Na, Nd, Sm, U, Yb, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Eu, Fe, Hf, Rb, Sc, Ta, Tb, Th. With the purpose to study the similarity/dissimilarity between the samples cluster and discriminant analysis were used. The results showed the existence of three different chemical groups that are in agreement with the archaeological studies made by Miller which found a sequence of cultural development, with three main occupational components whose dating ranging from 8.400 to 4.000 b.P. In this way, the results of this work are in agreement with miller's studies and suggest Bacabal’s phase as the oldest ceramist culture in the Southwest of the Amazon.