Distribution and chronological framework for Iberian variscite mining and consumption at Pico Centeno, Encinasola, Spain

AMS radiocarbon and OSL dating, and profiling were used to directly delimit periods of variscite production at Pico CentenoMine 2. These resultswere integratedwith analysis of otherwell-dated periods of variscite production to establish an Iberian-wide chronological framework. Variscite production at Pico Centeno Mine 2 began at ~5200 BC, coincident with alpine jade production or Casa Montero Iberian flint production. Variscite was only used occasionally, together with other greenstones, during the 5th and 6th millennia BC. During the 4thmillenniumBC, variscite use began to increase to its apogee in the first half of 3rd millenniumBC when it appeared in nearly every Iberian burial site. This increase in variscite production and use coincided with decline in the popularity of alpine jade. By the end of the 3rd millennium BC, new resources began to be valued such as Asian and African Ivory, Baltic and Sicilian amber, and copper-based metal products. The variscite cycle thus started with the decline of jade in the 5th–4th millennium BC, and ended with the appearance of copper, ivory and extra-peninsular amber by the end of the 3rd millennium BC.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mineralogical attenuation for metallic remediation in a passive system for mine water treatment

Passive systems with constructed wetlands have been consistently used to treat mine water from abandoned mines. Long-term and cost-effective remediation is a crucial expectation for these water treatment facilities. To achieve that, a complex chain of physical, chemical, biological, and mineralogical mechanisms for pollutants removal must be designed to simulate natural attenuation processes. This paper aims to present geochemical and mineralogical data obtained in a recently constructed passive system (from an abandoned mine, Jales, Northern Portugal). It shows the role of different solid materials in the retention of metals and arsenic, observed during the start-up period of the treatment plant. The mineralogical study focused on two types of materials: (1) the ochre-precipitates, formed as waste products from the neutralization process, and (2) the fine-grained minerals contained in the soil of the wetlands. The ochre-precipitates demonstrated to be poorly ordered iron-rich material, which gave rise to hematite upon artificial heating. The heating experiments also provided mineralogical evidence for the presence of an associated amorphous arsenic-rich compound. Chemical analysis on the freshly ochre-precipitates revealed high concentrations of arsenic (51,867 ppm) and metals, such as zinc (1,213 ppm) and manganese (821 ppm), indicating strong enrichment factors relative to the water from which they precipitate. Mineralogical data obtained in the soil of the wetlands indicate that chlorite, illite, chlorite–vermiculite and mica–vermiculite mixedlayers, vermiculite, kaolinite and goethite are concentrated in the fine-grained fractions (<20 and <2 μm). The chemical analyses show that high levels of arsenic (up to 3%) and metals are also retained in these fractions, which may be enhanced by the low degree of order of the clay minerals as suggested by an XRD study. The obtained results suggest that, although the treatment plant has been receiving water only since 2006, future performance will be strongly dependent on these identified mineralogical pollutant hosts.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Luminescence and compositional studies for the identification of "fire-setting" features at prehistoric mine La Turquesa (Catalonia, Spain)

Modern mining activities often leads to destruction of archaeological records, making difficult to date the contexts and tools. In this work, a prehistoric mine with "fire-setting" techniques evidence was used to demonstrate the relevance of luminescence protocols to identify and date ancient mining activities. Chemical and mineralogical studies complemented the dosimetric ones by means of luminescence protocols. One of the samples shows lower absorbed dose suggesting heating procedures, like "fire-setting" and its luminescence age, determined by SAROSL, points to copper exploitation during the Middle/Late Bronze Age at La Turquesa mine, in accordance with archaeological records

PENETRAÇÃO E DISTRIBUIÇÃO DO CONSOLIDANTE PARALOID® B-72 EM CERÂMICA BRANCA ESTUDADA POR TOMOGRAFIA COM NÊUTRONS

The neutron tomography technique was employed to study the penetration and distribution of the consolidant Paraloid® B-72 in ceramic. This study was carried out in white contemporary ceramic vessels which were maintained in two distinct and controlled air humidity conditions, 35% and 90%, before the consolidant application (brushing technique). The results showed that the treatment with Paraloid® B-72 is more effective when applied in the drier vessel. The depth of penetration for the vessel at 35%, reaches (3.3 ± 0.1) mm in the wall, while for the one at 90%, (1.9 ± 0.1) mm, and the maximal concentration impregnation was 26% higher. The 3D images allowed a visualization of the impregnation process, that is, its distribution, failures, homogeneity, boundary between materials. These results demonstrated the feasibility of the neutron tomography technique and of the equipment of IPEN-CNEN/SP, in support the expert work in the field of preservation and restoration of ceramic objects

Fingerprinting Ceramics from the Chalcolithic Santa Vitória Enclosure (SW Iberia)

The Santa Vitória Chalcolithic site (southern Portugal) prompts several questions related to the provenance and production technology of artefacts. Archaeological ceramics from two sections of Ditch 1 of the Santa Vitória site were studied by neutron activation analysis and X-ray diffraction for the first time, with the main goal of contributing to the contextualization of the artefacts and better understanding their production processes/technologies and the provenance of raw materials. The results point to a local production of ceramics, since their mineral phases reflect the geological contexts around the archaeological site. The mineralogical assemblage indicates a firing temperature below 850 °C. Iron is the better discriminator of ceramics from both sections, which could be related to the addition of different proportions of temper grains during the ceramics’ production. Although trace elements do not serve as discriminating geochemical indicators for the analyzed samples, they do imply a slightly higher heterogeneity in the composition of the ceramic paste from section 2. The negative Eu anomaly found in two samples is in accordance with the lower contents of Na2O, related to plagioclase weathering. Detailed studies on ceramics and potential raw materials are foreseen to assist in discussing the role of this Chalcolithic archaeological site at a regional level

Intrinsic noise of a superheated droplet detector for neutron background measurements in massively shielded facilities

Superheated droplet detectors are a promising technique to the measurement of low-intensity neutron fields, as detectors can be rendered insensitive to minimum ionizing radiations. We report on the intrinsic neutron-induced signal of C2ClF5 devices fabricated by our group that originate from neutron- and alpha-emitting impurities in the detector constituents. The neutron background was calculated via Monte Carlo simulations using the MCNPX-PoliMi code in order to extract the recoil distributions following neutron interaction with the atoms of the superheated liquid. Various nuclear techniques were employed to characterise the detector materials with respect to source isotopes (238U, 232Th and 147Sm) for the normalisation of the simulations and also light elements (B, Li) having high (α, n) neutron production yields. We derived a background signal of ~10-3 cts/day in a 1 liter detector of 1-3 wt.% C2ClF5, corresponding to a detection limit in the order of 10-8 n cm-2s-1. Direct measurements in a massively shielded underground facility for dark matter search have confirmed this result. With the borosilicate detector containers found to be the dominant background source in current detectors, possibilities for further noise reduction by ~2 orders of magnitude based on selected container materials are discussed