Fiber Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) of the main siliceous rock quarries in Andalusia and its application to the identification of the origin of lithic artifacts carved during Prehistory.

Abstract

The provenance of the flint artifacts is very important in archaeological investigations, since it allows knowing the displacement of lithic manufactures, the networks of their exchange, the patterns of mobility, etc. By means of Fiber Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS), 16 of the main quarries of flint and other siliceous rocks of Andalusia with obvious signs of having been used during recent Prehistory have been characterized. The application of statistical methods of multivariate analysis (Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis) to the data obtained has made it possible to differentiate 58 spectrofacies that define a spectral collection of the main Andalusian flints. These spectrofacies can identify the origin of archaeological flint artifacts. The validity of this method has been verified by studying 15 arrowheads from the megalithic necropolis of Gorafe. The results indicate that 5 of them may come from 4 of the Andalusian flint quarries and 10 seem to have a different origin, but 7 with very close relationships between several of them. These results confirm that reflectance spectroscopy and multivariate analysis provide a very useful tool for identifying the provenance, identification and classification of archaeological flints, as well as providing information on the diagenesis of the siliceous materials from which they were carved.