Micro X-ray Fluorescence Study of Late Pre-Hispanic Ceramics from the Western Slopes of the South Central Andes Region in the Arica y Parinacota Region, Chile: A New Methodological Approach

A novel methodological approach enhances the discrimination of ceramic shards using Micro X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) by automatically separating mineral inclusions from the clay matrix, allowing independent statistical analysis. This improved protocol was applied to 83 ceramic shards from the Arica y Parinacota region in Chile, revealing that some samples were misclassified when using traditional methods that rely solely on spatially averaged elemental concentrations. The study provides a general overview of ceramic compositional classification in this region but highlights the need for further analysis on more specific sample sets to draw concrete archaeological conclusions.

Flewett, S., Saintenoy, T., Sepúlveda, M., Mosso, E. F., Robles, C., Vega, K., Gutierrez, S., Romero, A., Finney, L., Maxey, E., & Vogt, S. (2016). Micro X-ray Fluorescence Study of Late Pre-Hispanic Ceramics from the Western Slopes of the South Central Andes Region in the Arica y Parinacota Region, Chile: A New Methodological Approach. Applied Spectroscopy, 70(10), 1759–1769. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003702816654153