Abstract
To elucidate regional differences in the chemical composition of cuneiform clay tablets originating from Iraq and Turkey, chemical analysis was conducted using portable X-ray fluorescence analyzers. The analysis included clay tablets from the 21 areas of Ur, Larsa, Lagash, Uruk, Umma, Adab, Drehem, Nippur, Kish, Borsippa, Dilbat, Babylon, Sippar, Nusi, Nimrud, Nineveh, Tell Brak, Tell Halaf, Boghazkoy, Kultepe, and Alalakh, currently stored in the Yale Babylonian Collection at Yale University and the British Museum. Multivariate statistics such as principal component analysis, discriminant analysis, and cluster analysis were applied to the chemical analysis results. Based on the chemical compositions for Ca, K, and Fe, the clay tablets were classified into four groups corresponding to the upper stream area of the Tigris and Euphrates River, the lower stream area of the Tigris and Euphrates River, the northern and central areas in Turkey, and the southern area in Turkey. This grouping was determined mainly by a difference in Ca content dictated by the local geology.
Highlights
To obtain chemical compositional information to elucidate the provenance of cuneiform clay tablets, we conducted non-destructive chemical analysis of clay tablets originating from Iraq and Turkey
The chemical compositions of Ca, K, Fe, Ti, Rb, Sr, Mn, and Zn, which were analyzed with good precision by portable X-ray fluorescence analyzer (pXRF) for all the clay tablets from each area are summarized in Appendix
Group 1 corresponds to the lower stream area of the Tigris and Euphrates River, Group 2 corresponds to the upper stream area of the Tigris and Euphrates River, Group 3 corresponds to the northern and central areas (Boghazkyoy and Kultepe) in Turkey, and Group 4 corresponds to the southern area (Alalakh) in Turkey
Summary
To obtain chemical compositional information to elucidate the provenance of cuneiform clay tablets, we conducted non-destructive chemical analysis of clay tablets originating from Iraq and Turkey. Chemical analysis was conducted on the economic and administrative clay tablets whose information on the provenance was available. Neutron activation analysis has been previously used to analyze clay tablets (Artzy et al, 1976; Dobel et al, 1977; Goren et al, 2009). This method is not favorable because the method is destructive. Clay tablets from Egypt were not analyzed in this research
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