Paper short abstract:

This paper presents the result of the elemental and provenance study on the metal objects from the 12-13th century’s Java Sea wreck by X-Ray Fluorescence, Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry, and lead isotope analysis.

Paper long abstract:

Artifacts from a shipwreck site are a unique archaeological asset. The characteristics of discovered artifacts from such sites are distinct from objects found at production and consumption sites on land, as they directly represent the state of material transit. The Field Museum is the custodian of a large collection of artifacts from the Java Sea Wreck, an Indonesian ship that was travelling from China to Java in the 12-13th c. AD. The cargo comprised large quantities of metal artifacts. We focused our attention on copper ingots, bronze gongs, and lead-tin balance weights that might have been personal possessions of the crew or passengers. We performed elemental analysis on these objects using portable X-Ray Fluorescence and Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry to determine the elemental composition of the artifacts. It also gave us insights on how best to approach elemental analysis on metal objects that remained submerged in the sea for several centuries. This presentation will also report on preliminary lead isotope analysis results obtained from some of the artifacts to determine their provenance.