Effects of elevated levels of lead in ceramics on provenancing studies using non-destructive PXRF: a case study in Byzantine Cypriot glazed ceramics

Abstract

Glazed ceramics are ubiquitous in the medieval archaeological record in the Mediterranean. The effects of lead volatilisation during firing of glazed ceramics on non-destructive PXRF (portable X-ray fluorescence) are evaluated using 25 Byzantine Cypriot glazed ceramics. Significant spectral interferences reduce the number of discriminating elements for multivariate statistical analysis, limiting the capacity of non-destructive PXRF to resolve compositional differences. Nonetheless, non-destructive PXRF of glazed wares has the potential to expand provenancing studies where significantly different geology is present or for appropriate archaeological questions.