ΙSLAND OF ANDROS POTTERY IN ARGILOS? ARCHAEOMETRIC STUDY USING μ-XRF AND MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The present work constitutes the first two phases of the archaeometric study of the so-called “Siphnian” ware found in two different geographical regions in Greece, Argilos, in eastern Macedonia, and its metropolis in southern Greece, Andros island. Identification of the provenance of the Siphnian-type pottery found in the above regions is the principal question that has to be investigated and is of major importance, since socio-economic interactions between Argilos and Siphnos island are not verified, while there are only few published data about “Siphnian” ware. For this purpose, non-destructive multi-element micro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy was employed for the determination of the elemental composition not only of the above Siphnian-type ceramics, but of several other reference groups, which were recruited for comparison purposes. Furthermore, the analytical data were statistically treated using multivariate exploratory techniques (Principal Component Analysis, PCA and Cluster Analysis). As a result, useful provenance associations were derived from the statistical combination of the studied groups. More specifically, results indicate that the Siphnian-type pottery found in Argilos and Andros most probably have common provenance. However, it was proved that neither Argilos nor Andros is the origin of these ceramics, making the determination of their provenance a complicated task.