Geochemical discriminants for the provenance characterization of ceramics

Cultural heritage can be effectively protected and restored by accurately identifying archaeometric materials used inhistorical sites, such as rocks, ceramics, bricks, mortar, and plaster, and determining their origins. This interdisciplinary study employsmineralogical, petrographic, and isotopic properties together with geochemical analyses to ascertain the origins of these materials. Thisstudy focuses on the provenance characterization of ceramics as possible source rocks of ceramic raw material using new geochemicaldiscrimination diagrams. Detailed geochemical analyses of manufactured ceramics from various rock types from different locationswere conducted and new geochemical discrimination diagrams were created to determine the origins of the ceramics. The geochemicaldata of ceramics that originated from different rock types, including igneous, pyroclastic, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, andwere collected from various historical sites in Türkiye were used in the newly created discrimination diagrams. Consequently, it wasdetermined that it was not possible to distinguish their origins based on rock composition using the geochemistry of the ceramics, but itwas more feasible to distinguish origins based on rock groups. Mineralogical and petrographic observations must be used together withgeochemical data in efforts to characterize the possible source rocks of ceramics. The newly generated diagrams were also comparedwith the geochemical properties of clay samples from Türkiye and Georgia to accurately classify their origins. The clay samples sourcedfrom Georgia originated from acidic igneous rocks, while the clay minerals utilized in Turkish ceramics came from a range of sources,including both acidic and basic igneous rocks.