Study of cultural and historical materials excavated from the archaeological excavation is one of the most important goals of Archaeometry, in order to answer a lot of questions in archeology. In this regard, elemental analysis is important factors in the realization of this aim. Numerous analytical methods have been used for this purpose traditionally. Among them, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) methods, inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy (ICP-MS) or neutron activation analysis (INAA) can be noted. In recent years, the use of portable X-ray fluorescence instrument is one of the ways that has been received a lot of attention and is expanding and improving continuously. The good accuracy as well as fieldwork possibility of this non-destructive method has led it to increasingly attains more popularity. In particular, this method has been used more and more in classification and provenance study of pottery and stone artifacts. Although very few institutions in Iran, including Tehran Art University, have access to this tool but due to the unique features of this device, it seems that its use will be expanded in next years. This paper attempts to give a general idea about this technique to the researchers and students, and review its advantages, limitations and application in cultural heritage purposes. There is almost no any other portable analytical tool, which is become so familiar and user-friendly like portable XRF. As this technique is actually a surface analysis and penetration x-ray is limited to some millimeter, the target surface must be free of likely contaminations. However it would help researchers in different fields studies like museum studies, Archaeometry, archaeology, geoarchaeology or conservation of artifact. In theory, all elements except H & He could be identified with this technique. However, identification of light elements with low atomic numbers is very hard. With using a new generation of silicon drift detectors, it is possible that elements from Mg (Z=12) to U (Z=92) be detected. Besides qualitative studies, this instrument has been used widely for quantitative analysis. Classification and provenance studies are the main application of this tool in archaeology. With appropriate calibration and statistical methods reliable results would be acquired. Some examples of ancient potteries from Zanjan are given in this issue.Clustering test (CA) and principle component analysis (PCA) are the two most used statistical methods in interpretation of quantitative results of XRF.

Using the stones to make tools and vessels dated back to Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. Stones so called soft stones, along with the alabaster, are one of the most famous stones that have been used to produce vessel in Near East, where they are in use currently in different applications. Soft stone vessels reach to highest level of flourishing during the Bronze Age and its geographical exchange area stretches from India in east to Syria in west. Iran, as one of the most important places of this kind of stones, was a potentially center in this trade and archaeological sites such as Tape Yahya and Konar Sandal in Kerman province are some of the most famous sites in making and exporting this kind of objects. Although soft stone vessel making continued during historical to Islamic era, but this industry has been neglected by researchers and archaeologist. In addition, until now morphological and artistic reports and archaeometry studies have focused only on Bronze Age vessels. During six seasons archaeological excavations at an Islamic Archaeological site called Shadyakh near to modern city of Neyshabur (about 2 km south east of Neyshabur), which its date goes back to Early and middle Islamic period, many cultural objects, like the pottery, glass, metal, bones, human skeletal, plaster, and architectural remains have been discovered. Beside of these samples, several pieces of soft stone vessels were discovered from several archaeological excavations. No evidence of workshop or crafting was reported and according to geological reports around this region, no outcrop of soft stone was seen. Although that these vessels are important, no study have yet been conducted on them. At this research, the vessels have been archaeometrically studied. The main objective of this research was to gain the information about the structural characteristics of soft stone vessels recovered from this site. Before this, Kohl and his collogues in 1979 carried an investigation on large amount of Bronze Age archaeological samples from Middle East. They found several main groups and a mine around Mashhad was recognized. Other researches on soft stones include Razani’ s M. A and Imami and his colleague’ s researches on new chlorite mines of Ashin; and Afshari Nezhad and Razani’ s research on structural characterization and conservation of Jiroft cultural basin’ s chlorite vessels. The only research on historical and Islamic soft stone vessels was about the effect of cooking conditions on structure of vessels. At this research, totally 16 samples from different seasons of archaeological excavations of Shadyakh were collected and analyzed by XRD, 4 sample analyzed by XRF, and 2 samples by SEM. The results of XRD analysis showed two main groups, while 21 trace elements and 11 chemical compound were detected by XRF. The raw data was studied by Excel statistic software. At this study, overlap graph was prepared according to finding difference or similarity between samples where the results show high similarity among the samples. The SEM and XRD results show that main compounds are Talc, Steatite, Soapstone, Clinochlore, Graftonite, Dolomite, Britholite and Clinochlore. All samples have these compounds, therefore, it could be concluded that Shadyakh samples come from one geological zone.

The quantitative evaluation of uranium content in the Khoshomi boreholes has been mainly carried out based on logging and XRF laboratory data. In order to determine the correlation between aforesaid data, composition and chemical analysis has been accomplished at 115 zones by considering 3.05 meter intervals that is equal to the length of each drilling rod. In this relation, 55 parts with the core recovery coefficient more than 90% were selected and the correlation between their uranium and thorium contents were studied to determine the amount of radiation resulted from thorium. In the next stage, the regression equation was obtained using two methods, i.e. correlation between the total count and the uranium content, and the thorium depleted radiatiol1and the uranium content. Using the first method, the average estimation error is approximately zero. But, as the estimated error variance is relatively high, complementary information is required for a favorable mining design.

According to experts, Sirvan historical site in Ilam province belongs to the Sassanid period or the early Islamic centuries. Despite the archaeological importance of this site, unfortunately, methodical and broad archaeological and archaeometical activities have not been performed. To the systematic investigation of samples obtained from the initial excavations for geoarchaeological studies, 14 potsherds from this site were examined. Concerning this question that what are the main geochemical properties, structural similarities, and differences between these specimens, experimental analysis was done. In order to the elemental and mineralogical description of samples, estimating their firing temperature, and preparing a model for classification of them, chemical composition and mineralogical phases of samples were characterized through X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The standard deviations of the amount of silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, and magnesium oxides were calculated at 11.527, 3.290, 2.705, 5.887, and 2.087, respectively. High dispersion of the quantity of elements especially for Si and Ca reveals that these samples belong to different workshops, regions, or historical periods with variation in sources and amounts of raw materials and processing steps.  in the same geographical area. Moreover, any special model for classification of samples not found, except samples no. S8 and S9 that have similarity in their chemical and mineralogical composition. In addition, the three samples S12, S13, and S14 have completely different chemical and mineralogical characterization and are probably to be imported products. Also in samples with a high amount of the calcium oxide (more than 6%), probably local limestones were used as temper. In general, these samples can be considered as local production (except for the three examples mentioned. Concerning not identifying the clay minerals and presence of calcite (likely primary), diopside, and gehlenite (as firing products), the firing temperature of these samples was estimated between 850 - 900. Keywords: Ilam, Sirvan Historical Site, Pottery, Structural Analysis, XRD and XRF.   Introduction The pottery abundance and its sufficiency in describing and interpreting the past cultures and civilizations have made it a significant source of information on regard to the reconstruction of human behavior in archaeological studies (Feinman & Skibo, 1999; Shrotriya, 2007). One aspect of research on pottery from archaeological excavations is the study of the characteristics of pottery in its archaeological context, i.e. paying attention to aspects of its preparing method, production technology, and its function (Sinopoli, 1991, p. 70). Potteries are analyzed through various approaches such as the study of macroscopic properties (shape, color, decorative patterns, etc.) and the study of microscopic properties such as mineralogy, and chemical composition and microstructure. The information obtained from the study of the mineral and chemical composition of pottery leads to recognition of their origin and production technology (Emami and Noghani, 2013). The historical site of Sirvan in Ilam province is one of the areas that, based on archaeological evidence and references in historical texts and sources, is a city belonging to the Sassanid era and the first centuries of the Islamic period (Alibeygi, 2012). Unfortunately, despite the archaeological importance of Sirvan, extensive archaeological activities and archaeological studies of the artifacts have not taken place in this area. In this study, for the first time, 14 samples of pottery obtained from archaeological activities (speculation for geological-archaeological studies) of this historical area, to identify the elements and compounds used in them, were experimented through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, to estimate the sintering temperature of the samples. The main questions of this research are: 1: What are the main phases of these samples? 2: According to the identification of raw materials, what will be the basis for classifying these samples? 3: According to the identification of phases in the structure, in what range is the firing temperature of the samples estimated?   Materials and Methods Based on the variety of specifications and appearance characteristics, samples were classified into two groups of glazed samples (S4, S5, S6, S7, S10, S11, S12, S13, S14) and unglazed samples (S1, S2, S3, S8, S9). To identify the structure of these samples, X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF) (Magix-pro device manufactured by Philips India, and semi-quantitative software of IQ +) was used for elemental analysis and chemical composition detection, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to determine the primary and secondary phases. The XRD device used in this research was a BRUKER device made in Germany, model D4 and DIFFRAC Plus software. The analyzes were performed in the laboratory of the organization of Country Geology and Mineral Explorations.   Discussion In XRF analysis of samples, silicon, aluminum, calcium, iron, magnesium, are determined as the main elements, sodium and potassium as trace elements, and titanium, manganese, sulfur and strontium as rare elements. The highest weight percentage of compounds belongs to the sum of silicon oxide and aluminum oxide. The percentage of iron oxide in these samples varies between 2.5% to 9.965%. Iron is found in these historical potteries as an impurity of clay minerals or intentionally used by the potter. In relation to the detected calcium oxide, a range of changes can be observed. These samples can be divided into two categories: low calcium (CaO with a weight percentage of less than 6%) and high calcium (CaO with a weight percentage of more than 6%). According to the results of XRD analysis, the indicator phase in all samples is quartz. The type of feldspar detected in these samples is mainly anorthite and sodium anorthite and in two samples S11 and S14 calcium albite has been identified. Calcite was detected in all samples. Identification of diopside and gehlenite as products of the firing process indicates a temperature above 850 ° C for the firing process (Noghani and Emami, 2017).   Conclusion Concerning determine the chemical properties and investigating the possibility of systematic classification of specimens obtained from initial excavations from speculation for geoarchaeological studies of the  Sirvan historical site, 14 specimens of pottery were tested using XRF and XRD analyzes. According to the weight percentage of the identified compounds, these samples include silicon, aluminum, calcium, iron, and magnesium as main elements, potassium, sodium, and titanium as minor elements, and strontium, manganese, sulfur, and phosphorus as trace elements. Differences in weight percentages of identified elements and their high standard deviation indicate that a great variety is observed in terms of type and amount of raw materials and preparation processes. The observation of diopside and gehlenite phases along with calcite, and the lack of identification of clay minerals, probably indicate that due to the usage of carbonate soil, the particles of these phases are present as temper in the composition of raw materials and the firing temperature is about 850 or finally 900 ° C, except for the S1 sample, which due to the presence of calcite and dolomite and no detection of diopside or gehlenite, had the firing temperature of less than 850 ° C. In general, it seems that the samples studied in this research are the product of different pottery production workshops or different historical periods, and the sources of their raw materials have been prepared from various regions in the geographical area of Zagros.

Experimental studies to analysis of Iranian prehistoric pottery lead to our more detailed knowledge about its production and distribution. Among these, pottery related to Bakun period during fifth millennium B. C. on the Geographic region of Southern Zagros and Fars province is an important phenomenon to understand the expansion of culture in the Kur River Basin at Central Fars and its dispersal to Northern borderlands on the Semirom district. Typically, this pottery is painted and has buff color paste, which it seems that made with high skill on the complex developed kilns. These wares are quite consistent with clean paste and no visible inclusions, painted in colors ranging from dark red through brown to black in a complex variety of patterns on a smooth surface. Many sherds are slightly green with shiny black paint as a result of over firing. Forms include a range of open ring based or flat based bowls, conical and straight sided beakers, and a variety of pots and storage jars. Based on the importance of materials, we selected 10 pottery sherds from the excavated archaeological site of Tal-e Mash Karim to experimental analysis. Tal-e Mash Karim is located at the Semirom district, Southern Esfahan province, generally linked to archaeological cultures of Fars region. As a result, by the analysis we are going to find pottery making’ s technology of early societies on the one of small intermountain valleys of Zagros during the Middle Bakun (Gap) period (around 4600-4300 B. C. ). Tal-e Mash Karim is a small mound, covering an area of c. 0. 5 ha and rises to a height of c. 2 m from the surrounding land and situated at the altitude of 2360 m above sea level on a highland plain. The excavation was conducted in 2014, involving investigations of three trenches, called A and B, each measuring 5×5 m., comprised the main excavation area of the central part of the mound, while Trench C (2 × 1 m), was opened to test the stratigraphic sequence of A and B. The experiments include two methods (1) Petrography analysis and (2) X-Ray Florescence (XRF) analysis that is delivered to laboratory of Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relicts (RCCCR). Based on Petrography and also geological studies at Semirom district it could be said that the pottery assemblage of Tal-e Mash Karim has a type of internal and local production that has been assigned to people of these settlement or other sites of this region where is produced the Bakun vessels. Beside the collected painted fine sherds, there are some coarse plain samples with two colors horizontal sections. All samples have greatly blank voids, which are included numerous organic inclusions on the external side of sherd as temper. There are two textures of silty and porphyry. Except the samples of 7 and 8, the results show that the all samples haven’ t firing temperature more than 800 C° . Geological Studies at the Semirom district shows that the sediments and altitudes of this region have the Calcite mineral elements which are visible in the pottery composition. In the samples of 4 and 7, the type of Calcite is Dolomite, which has been eliminated by heat. Thus, dominant phenomenon on the samples is composition of Hydroxide Calcium and Secondary Calcite mineral composition. Based on the XRF analysis, the composition of Calcite mineral elements on the pottery show the lowest amount of Oxide Calcium in samples 8 and 9, while highest amount is occurred in the samples of 10 and 11 that these completely match to Petrography results. The comparison of XRF results of Tal-e Mash Karim with Tappeh RahmatAbad’ s XRF Analysis on the 26 Bakun sherds show that their internal production is accompanied with 950 C° to 1050 C° firing temperature. Consequently, the samples of Tal-e Mash Karim fired at lower amount than Rahmat Abad.

One of the main sources of error in sample preparation is contamination resulted by laboratory equipments. Among these equipments, pulverizers and mills have a major impact. In this research, several samples of rock and ore with different abrasive property were pulverized by a tungsten carbide ring mill and analyzed by XRF method. It has shown that some samples were highly contaminated by tungsten and cobalt. The rate of contamination can be directly related to sample abrasiveness and time of pulverizing. Many interference of X-ray fluorescence spectra of tungsten and cobalt with some other elements were also found. In order to get a precise results, it is necessary to reduce or eliminate the interference of these elements by appropriate methods.

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis is a reliable and non-destructive multi-element analysis method that is widely used in research and industrial applications. In this article, the advantages and limitations of handheld XRF analysis were discussed. Handheld XRF is portable, requires minimal sample preparation, and responds quickly. For alloy identification, one of the most common applications of XRF is often grade determination, which can be done in less than 40 seconds using handheld XRF. Handheld XRF is capable of quantifying more than 90% of the common alloying elements of the periodic table, from magnesium and heavier, which is about 72 elements. Due to the potential risk of working with ionizing radiation, the analysis should be performed by trained people and following safety precautions.

There are many uses of obsidian by prehistoric peoples that includes a long period from Paleolithic until the Bronze Age and before the invention of metal. Due to its chemical structure, obsidian has special potential for fingerprinting and provenance studies, and it allows for the reconstruction of long-distance trade and the history of prehistoric exchanges in various parts of the Western Asia. Until now, only obsidian mines have been identified in Anatolia (northeast, southeast, central, western) and the Caucasus, and based on experimental analysis of the obsidian tools of the ancient sites of the northwest of Iran, however, some samples obtained from various parts of Iran, have remained unexploited due to lack of studies on the origins and identification of major mines and other indigenous mines. This research is trying to analyze 38 samples of obsidian artifacts belong to Chalcolithic and Bronze Age (Kura-Araxes) cultures, from 9 different prehistoric sites in Khoy region with using the XRF analysis method for identification of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age provenance sources, and to clarify that in which period which sources have been used predominantly and whether changes to the source have been made by changing in each period or not they used only the same sources in different periods. Our analysis show that 53 artifacts from the prehistoric sites of Khoy came from nine different sources. The sources are: Meydan Dag (15 artifacts), Syunik (8 artifacts), Tsakhunyats (4 artifacts), Suphan Dag (3 artifacts), Gutansar (3 artifacts), Arteni (2 artifacts) and Nemrut Dag and Tendurek (1 artifact) and unassigned (1 artifact). According to analysis results Meydan Dag and Syunik could be suggested as two main obsidian sources of prehistoric sites of Khoy region.

Introduction: Dust storm is a natural phenomenon that occurs frequently in the arid and semi-arid regions all over the world (Alijani, 1997). Dust can affect soil fertility, forests, rivers, lakes, and marine ecosystems around the world (McTainsh et al., 2007). Therefore, soil erosion can lead to the loss of the minerals and organic matter of topsoil. Some elements of dust have also an indirect effect on absorption of other elements (Reynolds et al.2001). It is estimated that each year 2000 Mt dust is emitted into the atmosphere, 75% of which is deposited to the land and 25% to the ocean (Shao et al., 2011). The morphology and elemental composition of the particles can change alone the transportation in reaction to gasses and other particles in the atmosphere (Wang et al., 2007). Identification of the physical properties and chemical composition of dust aerosols is important to determine aerosol sources, mixing processes and transport pathways (Rashki et al., 2013). Chemical analysis of airborne dust can also characterize major and trace elements of airborne dust which is important for quantitative climate modeling, in understanding possible effects on human health, precipitation, ocean biogeochemistry and weathering phenomena (Goudie & Middleton, 2006)…