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95
XIII/2/2022
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA
NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
Editorial IANSA 2/2022
Archaeometry Session During the Pandemic – Research Results
from the Lab, through the Net, to each Corner of the World
Béla Török
The global Covid pandemic has had serious consequences
for scientifc associations organising congresses. This was
also the case for the International Union of Prehistoric and
Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP). The 19
th
World Congress
scheduled for September 2020 at Meknes, Morocco,
the frst World Congress of the UISPP on the African
continent, was postponed to September 2021, then held
only remotely. Previously, the secretary of the Moroccan
organising committee had informed the session organisers
that it would be an on-site congress in 2021, and that the
online version was not technically feasible. However, the
global pandemic situation has changed this intention and
the organisers preferred to hold the entire congress online.
The president of the local organising committee asked
each UISPP commission president to help make an online
congress as efective as possible. Thanks to Larbi Boudad,
the secretary of the steering committee, and all his team,
Marta Arzarello, the general secretary of the UISPP, the
scientifc commissions and the session organisers, despite
the congress being held online and the decision being taken
late, it proved to be a success with 33 sessions, and more
than 300 communications.
The board of the scientifc commission “Archaeometry
of Pre- and Protohistoric Inorganic Artifacts, Materials and
Technologies” has also submitted a proposal for a session in
the 19
th
UISPP World Congress. The general objective of the
session organisers (Béla Török, Alessandra Giumlia-Mair,
Michał Krueger and Mark Golitko) was that there should be
some s
pecial cases on how particular problems concerning
the various materials could be solved: application of diverse
analytical methodologies; case studies on ancient quarries;
the production of stone artifacts from various contexts;
research on mining; analyses of smelting remains, metal
fnds, metal workshop remains, ceramics of all kinds and
periods; and research on glass production, glass workshops,
glass objects and colouring of glass. These cases will be
collected and presented in diferent sections. A further aim
of the session will be to share latest results and experiences:
providing useful information, comparisons of methods and
technologies, and the possibilities of standardisation of test
and database protocols.
At the 19
th
UISPP World Congress, on 3
th
September
2021, eleven presentations were given in the online session
titled “Archaeometry of prehistoric and protohistoric stone,
metal, ceramics and glass”. Eight of the presentations
were by members of our scientifc UISPP commission for
archaeometry. After the session, the participating commission
members also held an internal meeting as well.
The presentation of research, availability of information,
discussion and confrontation are important aspects of this
scientifc seminar. The publication of new data and research
within this framework is also very important. As in the
case of the previous UISPP Congress, the organisers of this
session have made every efort to ensure that the papers
are published in a peer-reviewed journal of archaeometric
science of an appropriate level. This is the frst time that
the articles of an organised scientifc event of the UISPP
commission for archeometry have published in a special
issue of the Interdisciplinaria Archeologica, Natural Sciences
in Archaeology Journal. The papers published in this issue
cover a varied and broad spectrum, both in terms of the types
of inorganic material (stones, ceramics and metals) studied
and the periods in question.
Marta Sánchez de la Torre, Cynthia Belén González
Olivares, Bernard Gratuze, François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec
and Xavier Mangado present their results obtained from
the analysis of lithic raw materials from the entire lithic
assemblage of Xicotó Rockshelter (Alòs de Balaguer, Lleida,
Spain). The site was occupied during at least two diferent
periods: the Ancient Neolithic and the Middle Mesolithic.
The examinations have been performed using the classic
archaeopetrological approach, which comprises textural
and micropalaeontological descriptions, combined with the
application of geochemical methods, using energy-dispersive
X-ray fuorescence (ED-XRF) and laser ablation inductively-
coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS).
A unique pottery vessel and other potsherds, unearthed
in the Keshik cemetery (Baluchistan, south-east Iran,
Volume XIII ● Issue 2/2022 ● Pages 95–96
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IANSA 2022 ● XIII/2 ● 95–96
Béla Török: Archaeometry Session During the Pandemic – Research Results from the Lab, through the Net, to each Corner of the World
96
4
th
–3
rd
mill. BC), are the focus of the study of Yasin
Sedghi, Mehdi Razani, Farahangiz Sabouhi Sani, Nassir
Eskandari and Mohammadamin Emami. The samples were
investigated by classical analytical methods such as thin-
section petrography, XRPD and SEM-EDS, to identify the
production techniques and characterisation of their structure.
New analytical data from the Lower Segura Valley (south-
east Spain),
both from local copper ores and from copper-
based artefacts of the local Early Bronze Age El Argar
culture are presented by Dirk Brandherm, Ignacio Montero
Ruiz, Milena Müller-Kissing, Alexander Maass and Emilio
Diz Ardid. Complex analyses of ore and metal samples
were carried out at several laboratory sites and a variety
of analytical methods was used (XRD, ICP-MS, XRF,
and TIMS and MC-ICP-MS for lead isotope analysis, and
Q-ICP-MS for elemental analysis).
A
paper presented by Béla Török, Péter Barkóczy and
Géza Szabó reports on the results of metallographic analysis
of some iron fnds and a fragment of a presumed iron bloom
or bar found at the Early Iron Age site of Regöly (Hungary).
The results were compared with the microstructures of
a fragment of an iron bloom from a Celtic workshop-type
site (Bükkábrány, 320–200 BC). The examinations were
carried out with optical microscopy (OM) and scanning
electron microscopy equipped with an energy dispersive
spectrometer (SEM-EDS).
The petro-archaeometric analysis of ceramics from the
Rittatore excavations (Bec Berciassa, north-west Italy), was
carried out on pottery sherds attributed to an older phase
dating back to the Late Bronze Age, and was presented by
Maria Pia Riccardi, Deneb Cesana, Maya Musa, Sergio
Martini and Francesco Zucca. In addition to the archaeometric
study that used optical and petrographic microscopes and
SEM-EDS, a geological survey highlighted the resources of
the area potentially useful for the development of prehistoric
communities, including resources that could be used for
ceramic production.
Finally, a paper that had not been presented online,
i.e.
an article by Béla Török and Alessandra Giumlia-Mair,
completes the range of material types investigated in this
special issue. This case study provides the results and
conclusions obtained from chemical and metallographic
analyses of artefacts made of gilded silver, copper-based
alloys and iron found in graves excavated at the 10
th
century
site at Kiskunfélegyháza (Hungary). The examinations were
performed with a portable handheld X-ray fuorescence
spectrometer (ED-XRF), optical microscopy and SEM-EDS.
I hope that this new publication will be of interest
of scholars and research professionals active in the
interdisciplinary feld of archaeometry. I am grateful to the
authors, all reviewers and, of course, the Editorial Board of
IANSA for creating this volume.