Using XRF spectrometry and Statistical Analysis to determine the provenance of Ancient Egyptian

Michelle F Whitford, Damian Gore, Timothy D Murphy, Michael Alderson, Paul Pigram, Michael J Withford

Faience is a glass-like material that was created extensively in Ancient Egypt. Produced between the Predynastic and Roman Periods (5300 B.C. – A.D. 395), objects made using faience, including amulets, figurines, and jewellery, were often associated with funerary contexts. These objects have easily become displaced over time without records of their original context, resulting in a significant loss of historical and economical value. As faience is a glass-like material, traditional dating methods cannot be applied to determine provenance. There are currently no absolute methods for dating ancient glass-like, and therefore displaced faience artefacts remain unprovenanced. Faience is also a useful material for developing a new method to determine provenance in other ancient materials because it is ubiquitous. In this project, we develop a non-destructive method to determine the provenance of Ancient Egyptian faience. Analyses were conducted on 266 faience artefacts from the Museum of Ancient Cultures at Macquarie University, the Nicholson Museum at Sydney University, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, and the Australian Museum. The sample set included artefacts with both known and unknown provenance. Elemental compositions of each artifact were determined using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF). Principal Component Analysis grouped artefacts based on their age. By analysing combinations of artefacts, artefacts with unknown provenance could be grouped with artefacts with known provenance. This revealed information about the relative age of artefacts with unknown provenance. This information can aid in authentication of faience artefacts where objects with unusual elemental composition could easily be identified and re-evaluated