Testing High-resolution X-ray Computed Tomography for the Micromorphological Analyses of Archaeological Soils and Sediments

Abstract

Micromorphological analysis of soils and sediment thin-sections is a recently established interpretative method applied to samples from geoarchaeological contexts. To further the quantitative element of thin-section micromorphology studies, image analysis methods have been used to segment and quantify section images. Despite these advances, the production of sections is prone to the introduction of artefacts and the fundamental limitation of a two-dimensional section can restrict interpretation of spatially complex samples such as occupation surfaces. High-resolution X-ray computed tomography offers the potential to surmount these inherent problems and allow quantitative analysis in three-dimensions. This paper demonstrates this and presents a test of the high-resolution computed tomography method against conventional thin-section micromorphology. The results of a comparative quantitative assessment of these methods are given.