The use of NAA for chemical characterisation of clay sources within an archaeological ceramic study in the Chaschuil-Abaucan region (Tinogasta, Catamarca, Argentina)

Application of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) to provenience studies of archaeological ceramics involves the determination of clay sources used for their production. This work presents the study on raw materials and its relation to sherd results, on samples from Argentine southern Puna,using NAA. An hypothesis was stated that the Puna region of Chaschuil served as a corridor for the circulation of goods, energy and information, interconnecting large areas and relating to facilities at the bottom of the valley, especially at the Bolson de Fiambala. Potential raw material source locations were sampled both in Puna and valley, considering availability, plasticity, workability and textural fractions of the deposits. Factor analysis was used for evaluation of the results. The graphical representation of the first three factors showed a dense grouping of valley clays with Puna samples as outliers. Within the valley group, those clays from La Troya river appeared closely related to each other. XRD of these samples showed 100 % good quality clays for ceramic manufacture and high presence of clay fraction (17 - 45 % concentration values), with excellent properties regarding their plasticity and workability. The evaluation of a matrix composed of clay and sherd analytical results showed that sherds from valley area were manufactured with local raw materials that included the already sampled sources and others still to be located; that most of Puna sherds were manufactured with raw materials from the valley area, mainly La Troya and that Puna sources of raw materials were not used in the manufacture of those sherds sampled at Puna sites. (author)