Journal article
The archaeometry of ochre sensu lato: A review
RS Popelka-Filcoff, AM Zipkin
Journal of Archaeological Science | Published : 2022
Abstract
This manuscript seeks to facilitate meta-analysis of cross-disciplinary ochre studies by advocating for a common vocabulary and clarifying the definition of “ochre” as used by archaeological scientists across cultural and geographic specialties. This work reviews the current state of ochre archaeometry, spanning the beginning of its major period of growth in the late 20th century through the present. Here, the focus is on the main areas of ochre archaeometry as represented in the published literature, with characteristic example studies and best practices for each. These areas include methodological approaches to characterization and provenience, instrumental data interpretation and its rela..
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Awarded by Ohio State University
Funding Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the many First Nations and Indigenous community partnerships and lands around the world where these ochre studies have taken place. We also acknowledge the many researchers and scientists that analyze and study ochre worldwide. The authors acknowledge Malcolm Wallace (University of Melbourne) for his review of the geological formation of iron oxides and hydroxides. Fig. 1 includes photographs of ochre from several non-author researchers whom we thank for permitting the use of those images. "Fine Grained Sedimen-tary": Tamaryn Hodgskiss (University of the Witwatersrand) , "Pedo-genic Fe-oxides": David Wright (University of Oslo) , "Ferricrete": James McGrath (Wapsi Valley Archaeology) , "Banded Iron Formations": Gabriel Sindol (Memorial University of Newfoundland) via Michael Babechuk (MUN) , and "Ironstones" (oolitic) : James St. John (Ohio State University at Newark) . We acknowledge the suggestions and improve-ments to this manuscript from three anonymous reviewers. This research was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (DP190102219) (R. Popelka-Filcoff) .