THE USE OF MINERAL MAGNETIC PARAMETERS TO CHARACTERIZE ARCHEOLOGICAL OCHRES

Mooney, S.D., School of Geography, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

GEISS, C.E., Newton Horace Winchell School of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA, chgeiss@umn.edu

Smith, M.A., National Museum of Australia, GPO Box 1901, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

The application of several magnetic parameters to ochre samples has found that they can be used to characterize samples from known ochre quarries. This technique also allows the sourcing of ochre found in archeological contexts and provides an alternative to geochemical methods of provenancing ochres. Simple magnetic parameters (magnetic susceptibility, isothermal remanence) are effective in discriminating between ochre sourced from various quarrier, however, more sophisticated parameters (, S-ratios, IRM acquisition curves, hysteresis loops) are required to ascribe unknown samples to specific sources.