• journal_title：The Canadian Mineralogist
• Contributor：Leanne M. Mallory-Greenough ; Michael P. Gorton ; John D. Greenough
• Publisher：Mineralogical Association of Canada
• Date：2002-
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• Identifier：10.2113/gscanmin.40.4.1025
• journal_abbrev：Can Mineral
• issn：0008-4476
• volume：40
• issue：4
• firstpage：1025
• section：Articles

Basalt vessels are rare, but ubiquitous items in elite Predynastic (4000–3100 BCE) and First Dynasty (3100–2800 BCE) Egyptian burials. Where the bedrock sources can be identified, these artefacts can be used to study trade and social interaction between communities before the advent of writing. Seven Egyptian, post-Jurassic (unaltered), alkali and tholeiitic basalt units, representing all likely sources, were multiply sampled, and augite, plagioclase, pigeonite (tholeiites), and olivine analyzed (~1000 electron-microprobe analyses) in each sample. Flows can be distinguished using combinations of major and minor constituents from individual minerals (e.g., Al₂O₃versus SiO₂ in plagioclase or augite, and FeO versus SiO₂ in olivine). However, plots of the composition of coexisting minerals (e.g., CaO/(CaO + Na₂O + K₂O)_Plagioclaseversus CaO/(CaO + MgO + FeO)_Augite or MgO/(MgO + FeO)_Olivine; K₂O/FeO_Plagioclaseversus MnO/TiO_2Augite, or K₂O/(CaO + Na₂O + K₂O)_Plagioclaseversus SiO₂/TiO_{2 Olivine}) and multidimensional scaling applied to augite and plagioclase indicate that multi-mineral discrimination of units is more effective than single-mineral discrimination. Discriminant analysis (multivariate analysis of variance) shows that units can be efficiently distinguished using multi-mineral data, although single minerals also provide effective discrimination. Furthermore, the combination of TiO₂, FeO and CaO in augite, and SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and Na₂O in plagioclase, discriminates between Egyptian alkaline and tholeiitic basalts as well as do the whole-rock data. Approximately 2700 electron-microprobe analyses of minerals in microsamples (1 mg) from 117 Egyptian basalt vessels indicate, unequivocally, that the bedrock source of every vessel is the Haddadin lava flow in northern Egypt. During the Predynastic period, the trade in basalt vessels was probably controlled from Maadi, the settlement closest to the Haddadin flow and richest in recycled “factory seconds”.