Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:54:37.380Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Quantitative Analysis of Soil Phosphate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William I. Woods
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Developments in environmental quality testing have revealed the need for a reappraisal of the methods of phosphate determination employed by archaeologists. The results of such a reappraisal are presented with recommendations for the implementation of a new technique of quantitative phosphate determination called sequential fractionation. With this technique three discrete fractions are determined by differential solubility criteria. These fractions closely approximate in amount the major types of inorganic phosphate known to be retained by soils. Sample analyses are presented which indicate that the method can be employed to distinguish between natural and human deposited phosphate and to identify features.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , April 1977 , pp. 248 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Apt, Peter 1968 Phosphatuntersuchungen zur topographischen Legalisation von Ortswustungen. Geographica Helvetica 6:185–90.Google Scholar
Arrhenius, O. 1931 Die Bodenanalyse im Dienst der Archäologie. Zeitschrift fü r Pflanzenernä hrung, Dü ngung, andBodenkunde 10:427–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berenblum, O., and Chain, E. 1938 An improved method for the colorimetric determination of phosphate. Biochemical Journal 32:295–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buehrer, T. F. 1950 Chemical study of the material from several horizons of the Ventana Cave profile. In The stratigraphy and archaeology of Ventana Cave, Arizona, by Haury, Emil W. and others, pp. 549–63. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Chang, S. C., and Jackson, M. L. 1957 Fractionation of soil phosphorus. Soil Science 84:133–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornwall, I. W. 1958 Soils for the archaeologist. Phoenix House, London.Google Scholar
Cruxent, J. M. 1962 Phosphorus content of the Texas street “ healths .” American Antiquity 28:90–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D. A. 1973 Particle size and phosphate analysis: evidence for the evolution of a tell. Archaeometry 15:143–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietz, Eugene F. 1957 Phosphorus accumulation in soil of an Indian habitation site. American Antiquity 22: 405–09.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eddy, F. W., and Dregne, H. E. 1964 Soil tests on alluvial and archaeological deposits, Navajo Reservoir district. El Palacio 71:5–21.Google Scholar
Eidt, R. C. 1973 A rapid chemical field test for archaeological site surveying. American Antiquity 38: 206–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eidt, Robert C., and Woods, William I. 1974 Abandoned settlement analysis: theory and practice. Field Test Associates, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Gregg, Michael L. 1975 Test excavation at two sites in northwestern Illinois. The Wisconsin Archeologist 56: 174–200.Google Scholar
Lorch, Walter 1940 Die siedlungsgeographische Phosphatmethode. Die Naturwissenschaften 28:633–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lorch, Walter 1954 Die anthropogenen Bodenphosphate des Hohenstaufen-Gipfels. Jahrbucher fur Statistik und Landeskunde von Baden-Wiirttemberg 1: 367–75.Google Scholar
Lutz, H. J. 1951 The concentration of certain chemical ele- ments in the soils of Alaskan archaeological sites. American Journal of Science 249:925–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, S. E. G., and Williams, R. J. B. 1962 A note on the chemical analysis of a soil buried since Roman times. Journal of Soil Science 13:254:58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, J., and Riley, J. P. 1962 A modified single solution method for the determination of phosphate in natural waters. Analytica Chimica Acta 27:31–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solecki, Ralph S. 1951 Notes on soil analysis and archaeology. American Antiquity 16:254–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Syers, J. K., Smillie, G. W., and Williams, J. D. H. 1972 Calcium fluoride formation during extraction of calcareous soils with fluoride: I. implications to inorganic P fractionation schemes. Soil Science Society of America Proceedings 36: 20–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, William I. 1975 The analysis of abandoned settlements by a new phosphate field test method. The Chesopiean 13:145.Google Scholar