Chemical characterisation of ancient pottery from south of Italy by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) statistical multivariate analysis of data

Chemical characterisation has been carried out on 58 fragments of archaeolo gical pottery from pre-classical sites in Apulia and Lucania, regions in so uthern Italy. Fourteen elements were determined by atomic emission spectros copy by using inductively coupled plasma source. Statistical techniques, su ch as principal component analysis and clustering analysis, have been utili sed to define grouping of different pottery items. Tests performed showed t hat the analysed shards were differentiable mainly by age and provenance. ( C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.