To understand the economy of a society, it is essential to examine the production, distribution, and consumption of goods. This provides critical information for comprehending both past and present economies. However, studies of past economies in hi ...
To understand the economy of a society, it is essential to examine the production, distribution, and consumption of goods. This provides critical information for comprehending both past and present economies. However, studies of past economies in history and archaeology are scarce and tend to be piecemeal approaches to materials with limited provenance, or they focus mainly on state taxation. This is because establishing an objective basis for inferring the movement of artifacts through conventional research methods is challenging. Traditionally, the shape of an object has been used to infer whether it has traveled. However, determining how similar the shape is depends on the observer's perspective, and even if the shape is the same, it cannot be objectively determined whether the object was made in the same place and traveled or made in a different place. Therefore, archaeology has largely overlooked the study of past economies.
To address these issues, this study focuses on geochemical provenance analysis. Although previous studies have attempted this approach, it has been limited to pilot studies and has not been actively pursued, primarily due to the need for sample destruction and the high cost of analysis. The high cost of analysis restricts the number of samples that can be analyzed, making it challenging to reconstruct past distribution networks with a large enough sample size. Even if researchers secure sufficient funds to analyze a large number of samples, obtaining the necessary samples for geochemical provenance analysis can be challenging since the artifacts under investigation are legally protected. Therefore, there are structural limitations that make it difficult to pursue geochemical analysis of artifacts actively.
Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) is an attractive analytical method in archaeology because it is inexpensive and non-destructive. However, compared to destructive analysis, pXRF has lower accuracy and precision. Overcoming these limitations would enable the scientific identification of artifact origins and improve research on past economies that have been neglected. In this study, we conducted various experiments to improve the resolution of pXRF measurements for pottery. As a result, we developed a standardized pXRF procedure for pottery analysis. Comparing our results with those of other studies conducted worldwide, we determined that our standardized research procedure has higher accuracy and reliability than any other study.
Based on the research findings, several hypotheses on the distribution of pottery from the Neolithic to the Unified Silla period in Korea were established and verified with pXRF. This resulted in significant insights into the economy of the past, which has been largely neglected. The various case studies conducted in this research have raised the level of Korean archaeological research and addressed key questions related to the prehistoric and ancient economy of Korea.
Furthermore, this study has international implications. The study of prehistoric and ancient pottery distribution in Korea is an interesting case study in the world, and while pXRF provenance analyses have been conducted overseas, it is rare to find a study that presents an analytical procedure based on multiple pXRF validation experiments. Thus, this study has contributed not only to the development of Korean archaeology but also to the world archaeological community. In recognition of these achievements, a paper on the pXRF pottery provenance analysis method has been published in an SCI-ranked journal, and additional papers are currently under review for publication in SCI-ranked journals.