Spectroscopic Approach for Characterization of Archaeological Potsherds Excavated from Some Neolithic Sites from Sudan

Abstract

In this paper multi-spectroscopic techniques for characterization of ancient potsherds excavated from different Neolithic sites (Esh-shaheinab, Kadero and Jebel-Um-Marahi), Sudan were reported. The experimental data inform us to the both elemental and mineralogical composition of the potsherds. Mineralogical composition of ancient pottery has been studied by both FTIR and XRD approaches. Further, studies by Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to indicate the firing temperature from typical thermal reaction in potsherds samples. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) coupled with an Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) was used to study the internal morphology and chemical composition of the pottery. EDS was performed to figure out the elemental composition and the resultants were carried out statistically utilizing the ratio of SiO2 to Al2O3 due to their non-volatile character. However, XRD results Revealed the mineralogical composition of the potsherds the quartz is predominant all over the samples then microcline, illite, muscovite, albite, magnesium aluminum silicon oxides and rutile in different compositions and various firing temperatures of pottery samples were found to be in the 800-1100 ℃.