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https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/1585
Title: | "The Probable Industrial Origin of Archaeological Daub at an Iron Age Site in Northeast Thailand" (Parr and Boyd, 2002): A Comment on the Inappropriate Application of Geophysical and Geochemical Techniques to an Archaeological Question | Contributor(s): | Cotter, Maria (author); Cotter, S (author) | Publication Date: | 2003 | DOI: | 10.1002/gea.10096 | Handle Link: | https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/1585 | Abstract: | Parr and Boyd (2002) used colorimetric analysis in combination with geophysical and geochemical techniques to estimate firing temperatures for archaeological daub from an Iron Age site in Thailand. They suggest that the daub was fired at high temperatures and, therefore, is indicative of kiln utilization and increased industrialization during that period in Thailand. They argue that the adoption of a multimethod analytical approach in which the combination of data derived from ICP-MS, X-ray diffraction, and magnetic susceptibility analyses of daub samples, coupled with microscopic and macroscopic examination of samples, enhances the accuracy of their interpretations. While they should be commended for attempting to substantiate their claims using many geophysical and geochemical techniques, their arguments are flawed by the misapplication of the techniques described and/or over-interpretation of the data generated by such techniques. Therefore, Parr and Boyd's (2002:285) point about methodology ("that the combined interpretation of independent measures provides a better estimate of the original firing temperatures of the archaeological material than has hitherto been possible") is made redundant by the lack of scientific rigor applied to the independent measures used for this study. | Publication Type: | Journal Article | Source of Publication: | Geoarchaeology, 18(8), p. 883-893 | Publisher: | John Wiley & Sons, Inc | Place of Publication: | United States of America | ISSN: | 1520-6548 0883-6353 |
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: | 210103 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas | Peer Reviewed: | Yes | HERDC Category Description: | C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal |
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Appears in Collections: | Journal Article |
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