Chemistry of Soils and Sediments from an Ancient Site in the southern Levant: Tel Burna as a Case Study in the multi-elemental study of post-depositional and depositional processes
Abstract
Ancient tel is a type of an archaeological site, where the deposition and post-deposition processes took place in the past. We asked how we can determine them in the context of archaeology and how to interpret the past-human activities.
The tel Burna's area B2 was chosen to test these hypotheses. Using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, we determined the content of 20 elements in soil samples from archaeological strata dated from Late Bronze to Iron Age IIb.
The content of elements was divided into three groups according to their origin. The first group consisted of Ca, Sr, LE, Ti, Fe, and Zr.
These elements were associated with the natural background at the site and post-deposition processes related to the content of Ca, which was decreasing in the depth of soil profile. The second group consisted of K, P, Mn, Al, Si, and Zn.
The content of elements P and K was significantly increased in the squares containing the debris of dwellings. The third group consisted of Cu, which related to the Late Bronze Age fill containing crucibles and slags at the Iron Age casemate wall.
The hypothesis about secondary deposition of the fill at the wall was confirmed using optically stimulated luminescence. We demonstrated that the deposition and post-deposition processes can be interpreted using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and optically stimulated luminescence.
The R package robCompositions has proved to be a suitable tool to analyse compositional geochemical data at the area of ancient tel.