An imported flanged rimsherd discovered on the early medieval site of Kilree 3, Ireland: a study in archaeological deposition and provenance using automated SEM-EDS analysis (QEMSCAN)

The investigations presented here were prompted by the discovery of a red slip flanged rimsherd at the site of an Early Medieval double enclosure at Kilree 3, near Kilkenny town in the southeast of Ireland, in 2008. The sherd's initial classification as African Red Slip Ware (henceforth ARSW) Form 91C was based on its distinctive profile (see Kelly 2010; also independently identified by Doyle - 2009, 19), representative of the classic African flanged bowl, and on its fine red fabric. ARSW Form 91C was produced in northern Tunisia, in the 6th century AD, where it constituted a late form in the lengthy production series of ARSW. Considering the ensuing distance between the bowl's source of production and its final depositional context (in which it stands out as an exotic import), a detailed examination of the sherd's fabric (including Polarised Light Microscopy, Laser Raman Spectroscopy and automated SEM-EDS using QEMSCAN technologies) was conducted to verify the bowl's suspected origin. These investigations sought to identify the component minerals, to quantify their proportions and to highlight textures through compositional mapping. The results of the mineralogical studies are presented here with a view to contributing to the emerging narrative instigated by the discovery of the sherd and to allow for further comparative studies within the growing corpus of such fabric analyses.