© Journal of Roman Archaeology 23 (2010)

Introduction

logical sites of historical periods, has been used by archaeologists during the past

antiquity. Although silver (Ag) is found in relatively large concentrations at and around silver mines (and in some modern contaminated sediments), it tends to occur in the earth’s crust in concentrations of about 0.1 parts-per-million (ppm).1 Since Ag at this

recent project that focused on Ag, however, unusually high (≥ 2.0 ppm) and erratic Ag

urban sites of Roman date in Israel.2 Moreover, although a clear distinction was observed between the overall chemical compositions of cooking and non-cooking ware, unusually high Ag concentrations occurred in both. That study demonstrated that the anomalously

samples was removed before grinding and preparation for analysis, the Ag must have permeated the sample and was not limited to the surface. It was therefore deduced that the Ag was most likely introduced by an aqueous medium after the deposition of the

not rural sites, and that the cities concerned were distant from each other, suggested an anthropogenic origin for the Ag enrichments.

related to particular kinds of archaeological contexts, we have systematically studied

Contexts investigated include a commercial area and city center, sacred precincts, resi-dential areas and installations used for water storage.

The sampled contexts

along with the evidence for date. More extensive discussions of most of the contexts and their dates can be found in the references cited. The sampled contexts are num-bered sequentially: Corinthian contexts from C1 through C17, Levantine contexts from L1 through L10, to which are added the sites of Sepphoris and Dor. These context num-

samples are shown and summarized.

1 Purcell and Peters 1998.2 et al. 2006a.

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