Alteration and Contamination of Archaeological Ceramics: the Perturbation Problem

Alteration and contamination processes modify the chemical composition of ceramic artefacts. This is not restricted solely to the affected elements, but also affects general concentrations. This is due to the compositional nature of chemical data, enclosed by the restriction of unit sum. Since it is...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Buxeda i Garrigós, Jaume
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:1999
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/32744
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/32744
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ceràmica prehistòrica
Arqueometria
Química arqueològica
Prehistoric pottery
Archaeometry
Archaeological chemistry
Descripción
Sumario:Alteration and contamination processes modify the chemical composition of ceramic artefacts. This is not restricted solely to the affected elements, but also affects general concentrations. This is due to the compositional nature of chemical data, enclosed by the restriction of unit sum. Since it is impossible to know prior to data treatment whether the original compositions have been changed by such processes, the methodological approach used in provenance studies must be robust enough to handle materials that might have been altered or contaminated. The ability of the logratio transformation proposed by Aitchison to handle compositional data is studied and compared with that of present data treatments. The logaratio transformation appears to offer the most robust approach