Standardization and Transformation in Principal Component Analysis, with Applications to Archaeometry

The debate over the chronology of the early Iron Age in Israel by far transcends Palestinian archaeology, history, and biblical historiography. Chronologies for most of the adjacent regions, and th...

An archaeological contribution to the early Iron Age chronological debate: Alternative chronologies for phoenicia and their effects on the levant, Cyprus, and Greece

Multivariate statistical analysis of artefact compositional data, usually undertaken to investigate structure in the data, often incidentally reveals the presence of multivariate outliers Much statistical methodology dealing with the detection of such outliers is not well suited to archaeometric data that, in the event, consist of two or more groups The paper provides examples to illustrate the importance of detecting and dealing with outliers, and critically examines a range of different approaches to outlier detection The examples show that cluster analysis, the technique most widely used for this purpose, can fail to reveal outliers clearly identified by other methods

Detecting multivariate outliers in artefact compositional data

The scale of late prehistoric sociopolitical complexity on the Colorado Plateau has been widely debated in the American Southwest. Proponents of an alliance model use Jeddito Yellow Ware, manufactured at Hopi Mesa villages, as one of four index wares. This distributional study of Jeddito Yellow Ware challenges aspects of the alliance model by using a data set that contains over 430 yellow ware sites throughout areas of NE Arizona. This pottery is found on the full range of site types and sizes, rather than simply at the large sites (i.e., >50 rooms) that the alliance model assumes. Within the core production area, Jeddito Yellow Ware is not characterized by restricted access to such pottery: most (89%) yellow ware sites have two rooms or less. We argue that the distribution of Jeddito Yellow Ware in our study area can be understood in the context of inter-community exchange and community based craft specialization, rather than through elite-controlled ceramic exchange networks.

Ceramic Distribution and Exchange: Jeddito Yellow Ware and Implications for Social Complexity

An analytical study, using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry, of samian and colour-coated wares from the Roman town at Colchester together with related continental samian wares

Isomer ratios in antimony and bromine fission fragments have been measured in the (12C+209Bi), ( alpha +204Pb) and (12C+196Pt) reactions, The values of the isomer ratios and their variation with energy are in accordance with the fragment angular momenta predicted by the Fermi gas model for the fissioning nucleus.

Isomer ratios in fission fragments at high excitation

Black-on-red ware in the levant: A neutron activation analysis study

Classical and Hellenistic black glaze ware in the Mediterranean: a study by epithermal neutron activation analysis

Fission fragments from heavy ion induced fission were stopped in thin magnesium foils. A fast procedure based on evolution of stibine was developed to separate the antimony isotopes embedded in the foil. A separation system, and a glass pressure filtration system was constructed for this purpose. The chemical yield measured by three independent methods was 80–90%. The degree of decontamination from other fission products was >102. The whole separation took eight minutes.

A fast separation for antimony produced in heavy-ion induced fission

Fast separation methods were devised for short-lived fission products embedded in Mg catcher foils; these are based on solvent extraction techniques.34Cl is a major contamination problem because it is formed directly by spallation in the catcher foil. The methods for Ag, Br and I had a decontamination factor of >1000: 1 for this isotope.

G. W. A. Newton

Papers

Isomer ratios in fission fragments at high excitation

Black-on-red ware in the levant: A neutron activation analysis study

Classical and Hellenistic black glaze ware in the Mediterranean: a study by epithermal neutron activation analysis

A fast separation for antimony produced in heavy-ion induced fission

Fast separations of yttrium, silver, bromine and iodine in heavy-ion-induced fission