X-RAY SPECTROMETRY, VOL. 26, 2"9-256 (1997) Application of XRF and Correspondence Analysis to Provenance Studies of Coastal and Inland Archaeological Pottery from the Mngeni River Area, South Africa C. Punyadeera,1 A. E. Pillay,1* L. Jacobson 2 and G. Whitelaw3 I Department of Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand, P.O. Wits 2050, South Ajrica 2 McGregor Museum, P.O. Box 316, Kimberley 8300, South Mrica 3 Natal Museum, Private Bag 9070, Pietermaritzburg 3200, South Mrica XRF spectrometry was applied to provenance studies of Iron Age pottery specimens that originated from the Mngeni river area in South Africa. Ten transition metals (Se to Zn) were determined in 107 potsherds, excavated from four different sites. The data were subjected to a computerized mathematical technique (correspondence analysis), which was used to group the samples according to the similarity of their elemental distributions. The groupings were interpreted in terms of social or cultural interaction between the sites. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. X-Ray Spectrom. 26, 249-256 (1997) No. of Figures : 5 No. of Tables: 3 No. of References : 16 INTRODUCTION Studies of Iron Age archaeolO§ical sites in the Kwazulu/ Natal province of South Africa have generally focused on developing a cultural typology based on ceramic style and establishing its chronology and spatial dis- tribution. However, the communities which produced these wares did not live in isolation from each other: South Africa. The aim was to provenance the sherds so that any links between coastal and inland sites could be established. EXPERIMENTAL Sample coUection trade and social exchange contacts would have existed Samples were excavated from the four sites by standard but data on this are not always obvious from a simple archaeological methods. Sherds selected for analysis typological analysis of pottery. . were plain non-decorated specimens and 107 specimens Provenance studies provide a more objective assess- 4 were selected for investigation. Figure 1 is a map illus- ment of the movement of pottery as each vessel carries a trating the excavation areas and approximate points of chemical 'fingerprint' derived from the clay from which sampling. it was made. It thus becomes a simple matter to estab- Sherds from four sites were used for the analysis. lish chemical compositional groups, using a suitable Three sites, Mzonjani,4 Nanda 5 and KwaGandaganda,6 multivariate statistical procedure, in order to detect out- were occupied at different times (the 3rd, 7th and liers or overlapping samples which could indicate mid-8th centuries AD, respectively) whilst the fourth imports or exports. site, Emberton Way,? was occupied over the full time Modern analytical techniques were first applied to period, albeit probably sporadically. Table 1 illustrates the study of provenancing in 1957, 1 and since then a the phases present at each site together with their number of analytical techniques such as neutron activa- symbols as used in the correspondence analysis plots tion analysis (NAA), particle-induced x-ray emission below. Of special interest is the fact that Horwitz et al.? (PIXE), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) have been developed which provide , routine and accurate analyses. In this study, data were • " obtained by using XRF spectroscopy. XRF has proved . to be a useful tool in archaeology for determining the elemental composition of a variety of materials such as pottery, clays, hornfels and cave and open-site sedi- ments. 2 • 3 In this investigation, XRF was applied to pot- sherds from four sites in the KwazulujNatal province, • Correspondence to: A. E. Pillay. CCC 0049- 8246/97/050249- 08 $17.50 © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Table 1. Dating of the sherd samples from the four sites Site Mzonjani Nanda KwaGandaganda Emberton Way Emberton Way Emberton Way Emberton Way Phase Date (AD) Svmbol Matola 4th C m Msuluzi 7th C n Mdondondwane 8th C k Matola 4th C eM Msuluzi 7th C eN Ntshekane 9th C e Ndondondwane 8th C eK Received 15 November 1995 Accepted 4 October 1996