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METHOD
Neolithic bead assemblages from major Pre-pottery Neolithic settlements in actual Turkey, Syria and Jordan, and from Pottery Neolithic cemeteries in Sudan will be analyzed.
PRECIOUS develops an innovative methodological protocol to reconstruct the “biographies” of beads (making, using, repairing events) through an integrative approach combining micro-wear analyses, geochemical characterization and experimental archaeology.
Micro-surfaces of the archaeological beads will be 3D modeled and their textures will be analyzed using Confocal Scanning Microscopy. The results will be compared with ethnographic and experimental references.
The ethnographic references are carnelian beads produced in traditional workshops from Yemen and India, while the experimental references, preforms of beads documenting the dynamic accumulation of micro-wears (making/using), will be created.
Ethnographic beads
Experimental beads
Archaeological beads
Bead scanning with Confocal Microscopy,
surface characterization with a specific software and parameters,
and comparisons.
