Geochemical signatures of soapstones from the Nuuk area, southern West Greenland – their use for fingerprinting of archaeological artefacts
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Geochemical signatures of soapstones from the Nuuk area, southern West Greenland – their use for fingerprinting of archaeological artefacts. / Keulen, Nynke; Poulsen, Majken D.; Frei, Robert.
I: Journal of Archaeological Science, Bind 140, 105552, 04.2022.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Geochemical signatures of soapstones from the Nuuk area, southern West Greenland – their use for fingerprinting of archaeological artefacts
AU - Keulen, Nynke
AU - Poulsen, Majken D.
AU - Frei, Robert
N1 - Funding Information: Fieldwork and geochemical analyses were paid by Geocenter Bevilling 2016/12. Rebekka Knudsen, Kisser Thors?e, Morten Meldgaard, and others at GEUS Nuuk are thanked for discussions. Mikkel Myrup and Bo Albrechtsen gave an excellent introduction into the archaeological history of soapstone in the Nuuk area. We were inspired by the earlier SOAP project and discussions with Martin Appelt to apply for this project. The Greenlandic Ministry of Mineral Resources is gratefully acknowledged for organising the small-scale mining workshop that let to this project. H.-C. Olsen is thanked for discussion of Nuuks soapstone occurrences. Olga Nielsen and Toni Larsen are cordially thanked for laboratory support. Toby Leeper is acknowledged for keeping the mass spectrometers in perfect running conditions and for help in the mass spectrometrical analyses of the samples. Sara Salehi, Simon M. Thaarup, Henrik Stendal, and Mikkel Myrup for collecting or donating samples. Matthias Husted assisted in digitizing the literature data collection. We thank the editor Marcos Martin?n-Torres and two anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments provided that improved an earlier version of this manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - Soapstone was mined and traded by the Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo cultures (Saqqaq, Dorset, and Thule) as well as the Norse and Moravian cultures living in Greenland through time. We collected soapstone from outcrops around Nuuk, which hold large quantities of Greenland's high-quality soapstone, and analysed their whole-rock geochemistry, Sm–Nd and Rb–Sr isotopes for fingerprinting geological and archaeological purposes. Fieldwork showed that the quality of soapstone in the Nuuk area varies widely; however, a correlation exists with the age and metamorphic history of the rocks. Soapstone in the Nuuk area is derived from Archaean ultramafic rocks and yield high Mg, Cr, Ni and low Fe, V, K concentrations and are depleted in Ca. Soapstones from Nuuk have very high Rb concentrations and average to low Sr concentrations compared to other Archaean ultramafic rocks, leading to very high and irregular 87Rb/86Sr and 87Sr/86Sr ratios. A very poorly constrained Rb–Sr errorchron for unmetasomatised samples from the Nuuk area has a slope corresponding to an age of 3.05 ± 0.33 Ga. Soapstone samples from Nuuk, both affected and unaffected by metasomatism give a147Sm/144Nd isochron age of 2.95 ± 0.06 Ga. This is regarded as the age of metsomatism, and tectono-metamorphic overprinting, which affected the precursors to the soapstone. The best quality soapstones occur in the areas dominated by Eoarchaean gneisses. The ca. 2.95 Ga overprinting is uncommonly old for soapstones worldwide. Soapstone, and hence archaeological artefacts created from this soapstone, may likely be fingerprinted to the Nuuk area.
AB - Soapstone was mined and traded by the Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo cultures (Saqqaq, Dorset, and Thule) as well as the Norse and Moravian cultures living in Greenland through time. We collected soapstone from outcrops around Nuuk, which hold large quantities of Greenland's high-quality soapstone, and analysed their whole-rock geochemistry, Sm–Nd and Rb–Sr isotopes for fingerprinting geological and archaeological purposes. Fieldwork showed that the quality of soapstone in the Nuuk area varies widely; however, a correlation exists with the age and metamorphic history of the rocks. Soapstone in the Nuuk area is derived from Archaean ultramafic rocks and yield high Mg, Cr, Ni and low Fe, V, K concentrations and are depleted in Ca. Soapstones from Nuuk have very high Rb concentrations and average to low Sr concentrations compared to other Archaean ultramafic rocks, leading to very high and irregular 87Rb/86Sr and 87Sr/86Sr ratios. A very poorly constrained Rb–Sr errorchron for unmetasomatised samples from the Nuuk area has a slope corresponding to an age of 3.05 ± 0.33 Ga. Soapstone samples from Nuuk, both affected and unaffected by metasomatism give a147Sm/144Nd isochron age of 2.95 ± 0.06 Ga. This is regarded as the age of metsomatism, and tectono-metamorphic overprinting, which affected the precursors to the soapstone. The best quality soapstones occur in the areas dominated by Eoarchaean gneisses. The ca. 2.95 Ga overprinting is uncommonly old for soapstones worldwide. Soapstone, and hence archaeological artefacts created from this soapstone, may likely be fingerprinted to the Nuuk area.
KW - Eoarchaean
KW - Geoarchaeology
KW - Godthåbsfjord (Nuup Kangerlua)
KW - Provenance
KW - Rb–Sr isotope Geochemistry
KW - Sm/Nd isochron age
KW - Steatite/soapstone
U2 - 10.1016/j.jas.2022.105552
DO - 10.1016/j.jas.2022.105552
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85124528133
VL - 140
JO - Journal of Archaeological Science
JF - Journal of Archaeological Science
SN - 0305-4403
M1 - 105552
ER -
ID: 307368004