Mineralogical, petrographic and geochemical assessment of pre-Colombian pottery from Nunura area, Sechura desert, Peru

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Γιαννόπουλος, Μιχαήλ
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Giannopoulos, Michail
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: 2021
• Θέματα: Geochemistry; Archaeometry; Geoarchaeology; Mineralogy; Peru; Sechura; Γεωχημεία; Αρχαιομετρία; Γεωαρχαιολογία; Ορυκτολογία

Archeological studies in Sechura desert at northwestern Peru have recorded human settlements tracing all the way back to the 5th century B.C. and up to the 15th A.D. and the beginning of the colonial period (Cárdenas et al., 1991). The present study is part of a wider research project entitled “Sechura Desert Archaeological Program” and aims to test the hypothesis of the possible exogenous origins of the late pre-Columbian populations of the Sechura desert. We focus on the investigation of printed ceramic fragments that were made by paddle and anvil technique (paleteado) and sampled in the Nunura region of Sechura desert. This technique consists of forming the final geometric profile of pottery by simultaneously striking its internal and external walls using tools called beaters. X-ray fluorescence (XRF-WD), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and Optical Microscopy (OM) were jointly used for the compositional characterization of 106 Pre-Columbian ceramic sherds and helped us to assign them in various petrographic fabric groups. The results of the petrographic analysis indicated that these samples were primarily made from non-calcareous clayey raw materials, whereas the non-plastic inclusions recognized comprise rock fragments originated from igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic lithologies such as granite, rhyolite, andesite, sandstone, chert, schist and quartzite. The mineralogical analysis through XRPD verified the presence of quartz, plagioclase, amphiboles, biotite and muscovite. Our study, supported by geochemical and petrographic data, provides enough evidence to establish four main fabric groups mainly based on texture, shape, color, and the dominant types of inclusions in the samples. Furthermore, we draw conclusions about the firing temperatures of the ceramic fragments and the origin of the raw materials. The completion of our archaeometric approach is expected to shed light on ancient ceramic technology and the internal variance of paleteado technique used in the Nunura region.