Trace elements content and cause of color in ancient treated carnelian and its natural counterpart from SE Asia
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(2020) 12:3
ORIGINAL PAPER
Trace elements content and cause of color in ancient treated carnelian and its natural counterpart from SE Asia Seriwat Saminpanya 1 & Chatree Saiyasombat 2 & Narong Chanlek 2 & Nirawat Thammajak 3 & Ekkasit Sirisurawong 2 & Rattanavalee Viriyasunsakun 1 & Phusuda Kingkanlaya 1 & Patcharin Rakponramuang 1 Received: 16 March 2019 / Accepted: 16 December 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Iron Age treated carnelian beads and their natural counterparts from SE Asia have been discussed in terms of attribution of transition and lighter elements in their matrix. They were investigated by using synchrotron techniques (XRF: X-ray fluorescence, XANES: X-ray absorption near edge structure, and XPS: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and SEM-EDS: scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectroscopy. Ferrihydrite or ferrihydrite + goethite have been found as the causes of color. The treated stones were subjected to the sugar + sulfuric acid treatment of about 1800-year BP. This work has fulfilled information about the treatment in the ancient chalcedony to the archeomineralogy archive. Keywords Chalcedony . Carnelian . Sugar . Treatment . Sulfuric acid . Carbon
Introduction Chalcedony, fibrous polycrystalline quartz (Frondel 1962; Klein and Hurlbut Jr 2007) has been subdivided into several varieties e.g. carnelian, sard, onyx, and agate. (Frondel 1962; Webster 1995). They have been treated and used all over the world since prehistoric and ancient times. For example, carnelian beads from the tombs of the Iron Age, ~ 3rd centuries in Sa Kaeo province, eastern Thailand, are introduced here to be investigated (Fig. 1a–b). However, the provenance of the ancient carnelian beads in Thailand and Southeast Asia is still unclear. Several researchers attempted to prove their origin and trade (e.g. Insoll et al. 2000; Theunissen et al. 2000).
The answer is that they have long been putative to be exported from India (Lamb 1965; Bellwood 1976). However, the potential sources could be originated from India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand (Theunissen et al. 2000). Several works throw new light on the relations between India and SE Asia in the first millennium BC (e.g. Bellina 2002, 2003; Ramli et al. 2009; Carter 2015; Bellina 2016). Carter and Dussubieux (2016) used the geochemical signature to prove the sources of the Iron Age carnelian beads from SE Asia, and they concluded that most samples were made from raw materials from the Deccan Traps, northwest India. Our samples are found to have been treated into black or dark brownish black to imitate onyx or black onyx. There are some evidences including when a cylinder bead was cut in the transverse section
* Seriwat Saminpanya [email protected]
Phusuda Kingkanlaya [email protected] Patcharin Rakponramuang [email protected]
Chatree Saiyasombat [email protected] Narong Chanlek [email protected]
1
Nirawat Thammajak [email protected]
Department of General Science, Faculty of Science, Srinkharinwirot Univers
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