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    STUDIA GEOLOGIA - Issue no. Special%20Issue / 2009  
         
  Article:   INVITED LECTURE: Sr-Nd RADIOGENIC ISOTOPES AS MEANS OF RECONSTRUCTING ANCIENT GLASS ECONOMY.

Authors:  PATRICK DEGRYSE. 		 
       
         
  Abstract:  For all archaeological artefactual evidence, the study of the provenance and trade of raw materials must be based on archaeometry, the application of mineralogical and geochemical techniques to archaeological problems. Whereas the study of the provenance and trade of stone and ceramics is already well advanced, this is not the case for ancient glass. Substantial databases of major element analyses of glass exist (Brill, 1999), but meaningful groupings with respect to the geographical origin of the mineral resources have rarely been possible. For example, all Roman glass was found to be relatively homogeneous with little variation in major element composition (Freestone, 2006). However, elements like lime, iron, magnesium and alumina are useful, as they can be related to the concentrations of specific minerals (for example, feldspars, clays) in the glassmaking sand. Also, trace elements in glass can help to separate compositional groups and assign individual objects to them (Freestone, 2006). Conversely, recent advances (Wedepohl and Baumann, 2000; Freestone et al., 2003; Degryse et al., 2005, 2006, 2008) have shown that the use of radiogenic isotopes, specifically those of strontium and neodymium, allows developing new approaches for provenance determination of primary glass.

Keywords: radiogenic isotopes, glass provenancing, archaeometry, strontium, neodymium
  
         
     
         
         
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