Archaeometric study characterizes beads and pendants from an Iberian necropolis, revealing material origins.
This paper presents the typology and archaeometric characterization of a sample of necklace beads and pendants made of amber, sillimanite, glass, quartz, and shell documented in different tombs of the Iberian necropolis of Alarcos III. XRD, SEM-EDX, and FTIR were applied to eleven items dated between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE to determine their mineralogical nature and assess their provenance. The assemblage is notable for the identification of Baltic amber and for the interpretation of orange beads as quartz rather than carnelian.
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Díaz-Cano et al. (2026) studied this question.
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