Portable xrf used to provenance clay tablets

From AAAS Eureka Alert:

By adapting an off-the-shelf portable x-ray lab tool that analyzes the composition of chemicals, Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations can reveal hidden information about a [clay] tablet's composition without damaging the precious ancient find itself. These x-rays reveal the soil and clay composition of a tablet or artefact, to help determine its precise origin.

Over the years, he has collected extensive data through physical "destructive" sampling of artefacts. By comparing this data to readouts produced by the XRF device, he's built a table of results so that he can now scan a tablet –– touching the surface of it gently with the machine ― and immediately assess its clay type and the geographical origin of its minerals.

The tool, he says, can also be applied to coins, ancient plasters, and glass, and can be used on site or in a lab. He plans to make this information widely available to other archaeological researchers.

This sounds like a great combination of portable xrf, as calibrated by lab-based methods

Springer book on xrf in archaeology

Springer seems to be on a roll with archaeometry books! Here is another one edited by a veteran member and officer of the SAS, Steve Shackley.

X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry in Twenty-First Century Archaeology
M. Steven Shackley
2011, doi 10.1007/978-1-4419-6886-9_1
Springer
link to web site

Chapters in book:
X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry in Twenty-First Century Archaeology; M. Steven Shackley

An Introduction to X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Analysis in Archaeology; M. Steven Shackley

Factors Affecting the Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) Analysis of Archaeological Obsidian; M. Kathleen Davis, Thomas L. Jackson, M. Steven Shackley, Timothy Teague and Joachim H. Hampel

Non-destructive EDXRF Analyses of Archaeological Basalts; Steven P. Lundblad, Peter R. Mills, Arian Drake-Raue and Scott Kekuewa Kikiloi

Non-destructive Applications of Wavelength XRF in Obsidian Studies; Annamaria De Francesco, M. Bocci and G. M. Crisci

Portable XRF of Archaeological Artifacts: Current Research, Potentials and Limitations; Ioannis Liritzis and Nikolaos Zacharias

Elemental Analysis of Fine-Grained Basalt Sources from the Samoan Island of Tutuila: Applications of Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) Toward an Intra-Island Provenance Study; Phillip R. Johnson

Comparison and Contrast Between XRF and NAA: Used for Characterization Of Obsidian Sources in Central Mexico; Michael D. Glascock

Is There a Future for XRF in Twenty-First Century Archaeology?; Rosemary A. Joyce