Prospecting of archaeological sites in the city of Porto Seguro (BA) through the determination of phosphorus in soil samples

Abstract

Archeometry is the area of Archeology that uses techniques from other sciences to support its hypotheses, among them is Chemistry, which provides quantitative data in the characterization of material records. The analysis of phosphates is one of the techniques employed by archaeologists because of their potential to inform them of the presence of human occupation and provide clues about the type and intensity of activity in a particular archaeological context. In this sense, the objective of this work is to present the prospection of archaeological sites of the city of Porto Seguro / BA with focus on the concentration of organic, inorganic phosphorus and total soil samples. For this purpose, UV-VIS molecular absorption spectroscopy was used. During the research it was also determined the pH, the content of organic matter and humidity evaluating the soil characteristics as the conservation of archaeological artifacts. The concentration of phosphorus varied from site to site, and some contexts had high concentrations (Sambaqui) and other low levels (Outeiro da Glória). The pH varied from 4.87 to 7.94 and the organic matter and moisture contents were proportional to the concentrations of phosphorus found in the studied sites.