Archaeological/Archaeometric study by Using PIXE-Analyses on the Provenance and Production of the Luster Wares from the Underground Complex of Tappeh Ghaleh, Khomein, Iran

Archaeologically, analytical research of chemical elements on ancient objects gives important information on the raw materials and the production techniques. PIXE analysis is one of the non-destructive methods which is common for analytical researches on archaeological objects, especially on ceramics. Archaeological investigation at the ancient underground complex of Tappeh Ghaleh Aghaj in the Khomein county led to discovering some pieces of so-called luster ware. In the present study, a collection of luster potteries were selected to be analyzed to identify the nature, components and especially their provenance. To achieve our aims, a total number of twenty-five pieces of luster ware recovered from the site were analyzed by using PIXE method. Van De Graaf accelerator with 2MeV proton beam used to sample bombardment and High precision Si(Li) detector with 170KeV energy resolution chose to collected proton back scattered in 135 degree form incident beam. The sample, proton beam and detector were placed in 10-5Torr vacuum chamber. The analysis results were compared with the studied samples from other regions such as Kashan, Rey in central Iran and Takht-e Soleyman in North-West of Iran. The study showed that our samples present most similarity with the Kashan wares so it is evident that they were produced locally.