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Provenance of Kanjera Fossils by X-Ray Fluorescence and Ion Microprobe Analyses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

A. M. Kinyua ,
T. Plummer ,
N. Shimizu ,
W. Melson  and
R. Potts
A. M. Kinyua
Affiliation:
CNST, Faculty of Engineering University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya
T. Plummer
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 U.S.A.
N. Shimizu
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole. MA 02543 U.S.A.
W. Melson
Affiliation:
Department of Mineral Sciences National Museum of Natural History Washington, D.C. 20560
R. Potts
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology National Museum of Natural Hfstory Washington. D.C. 20560, U.S.A. and National Museums of Kenya P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi, Kenya
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Abstract

XRF and Ion mfcroprobe analyses of fossils of known and uncertain provenance from the Lower-Middle Pleistocene locality of Kanjera. Kenya, are reported. The goal of this study was to develop a nondestructive technique of provenancixig fossils, which could be applied to the Kanjera sample. The fossils of known provenance were collected in the excavations of the 1987 Smithsonian Expedition. Three fossils of uncertain provenance, two specimens of Theropithecus oswaldi and a hominid fossil, were analyzed as test cases.

Both qualitative and quantitative XRF analyses of Kanjera fossils were carried out. In the qualitative analysis, the elemental peak areas from each fossil's XRF spectrum were calculated and normalized to the peak area of the incoherently scattered radiation. Results of the analysis showed that fossils from the Lower-Middle Pleistocene Kanjera Beds, for the most part, had higher levels of yttrium (Y) and zirconium (Zr) than those of the younger Apoko (Ap) Bed. black cotton soil (BCS) and modem bones (MD). The relative concentrations of uranium (U) v strontium (Sri and thorium (Th) were diagnostic of the Kanjera Bed of origin. These findings were confirmed by quantitative XRF and ion microprobe analyses of a subsample of Kanjera fossils. The T. oswaldi and hominid fossils had trace element concentrations suggestive of K2 and BCS provenances, respectively. These findings provide a framework for the qualitative XRF provenancing of other surface collected fossils from the locality.

Type
XIV. XRS Applications
Information
Advances in X-Ray Analysis , Volume 35 , Issue B: First Pacific-International Congress on X-ray Analytical Methods (PICXAM). Fortieth Annual Conference on Applications of X-ray Analysis, August 7-16, 1991 , 1991 , pp. 1165 - 1173
Copyright
Copyright © International Centre for Diffraction Data 1991

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