Abstract
LA-ICP-MS is now one of the most common methods used for glass analysis in archaeology, and has the potential to build large databases for comparison. However, the actual comparability of measurements generated in different laboratories has not yet been addressed systemically. Here, the results of a round-robin comparison test on two modern glass samples with compositions comparable to ancient glasses is presented. The test involved nine laboratories using a diversity of mass spectrometers and lasers, as well as different calibration protocols and standard reference materials. Measured values differ significantly between labs for some elements, reflecting differences in calibration and instrumentation. However, these differences do not cause overlap between the glass samples that might confuse provenance in archaeological studies, but are significant enough to make finer-grained assignments to individual glass batches difficult or impossible when comparing across different laboratories.
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Dussubieux, L. (2016). A Proficiency Test for LA-ICP-MS Laboratories Analyzing Ancient Glass. In: Dussubieux, L., Golitko, M., Gratuze, B. (eds) Recent Advances in Laser Ablation ICP-MS for Archaeology. Natural Science in Archaeology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49894-1_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49894-1_13
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