Elemental analysis of ancient potteries of Vellore Dist, Tamil Nadu, India by ED-XRF technique with statistical approach

Abstract

In the analysis of archaeological pottery, Energy Dispersive X-ray florescence analysis has been utilized to establish the elemental concentrations up to fourteen chemical elements for each of 14 archaeological pottery samples from Vellore Dist, Tamil Nadu, India. The EDXRF results have been processed using two multivariate statistical cluster and principal component analysis (PCA) methods in order to determine the similarities and correlation between the selected samples based on their elemental composition. The methodology successfully separates the samples where two distinct chemical groups were discerned.