Provenance of pharaonic potsherds, Sharkiya Governorate, Egypt

The mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the pharaonic potsherds from two archeological sites (Qantir and Tall San Al Hagr), Sharkiya Governorate, Egypt, have been investigated to infer their paleoweathering, provenance, and tectonic setting. The pharaonic pottery materials are classifie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Arabian journal of geosciences 2017-08, Vol.10 (16), p.1-17, Article 354
Main Authors:	Zaid, Samir Mahmoud, El-Badry, Oussama, Abdel-Fatah, Ahmed Mohammed
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Archaeology Calcite Ceramics Clay Clay minerals Continental margins Earth and Environmental Science Earth science Earth Sciences Feldspars Goethite Illite Illites Iron Iron oxides Magma Magnetite Mica Mineralogy Minerals Muscovite Oligocene Organic chemistry Original Paper Oxides Palaeo studies Plagioclase Pliocene Pottery Provenance Quartz Sedimentary rocks Semiarid climates Semiarid environments Shale Smectites Trace elements Weathering
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Summary:	The mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the pharaonic potsherds from two archeological sites (Qantir and Tall San Al Hagr), Sharkiya Governorate, Egypt, have been investigated to infer their paleoweathering, provenance, and tectonic setting. The pharaonic pottery materials are classified mainly as Fe-shale. The mineralogy determined by X-ray diffractometry for the pharaonic pottery materials reveals that smectite and illite are the dominant clay minerals and smectite > illite. The non-clay minerals are dominated by feldspar (plagioclase and microcline), quartz with minor amounts of calcite, iron oxides (magnetite and goethite), and mica (muscovite). The chemical index of alteration (CIA), plagioclase index of alteration (PIA), and chemical index of weathering (CIW) values indicate moderate degree of weathering of the source material in a semiarid climate. The index of compositional variability (ICV) of pharaonic pottery materials is more than 1, suggesting it is compositionally less mature. The major and trace element concentrations suggested that the pharaonic pottery materials were likely derived from felsic (granitic) sources and deposited in passive continental margin of a synrift basin. The inferred tectonic setting for the pharaonic pottery materials in Sharkiya Governorate is in agreement with the tectonic evolutionary history of the north Nile Delta, Egypt, during Oligocene-post Pliocene.
ISSN:	1866-7511 1866-7538