The study of the physical and chemical characteristics of the ceramics crafts, in association with historical and archaeological research, has allowed for the reconstruction of the cultural habits from ancient communities. The goal of this work was to study the chemical and mineralogical compositions of archaeological potteries collected from Justino, São José, Curituba, Saco da Onça, Porto Belo and Vitória Régia sites, located in Baixo São Francisco region, Sergipe state, Brazil. The use of

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... instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD), allowed the definition of compositional groups of potteries according to the chemical similarities of the ceramic paste, which reveals the composition of the raw materials utilized in the manufacturing process by prehistoric man, and the inference of the atmosphere and temperatures in which the potteries were burned. The outliers were identified by means of classic and robust Mahalanobis distance. The temper effect in the ceramic paste was studied by means of modified Mahalanobis filter. The results were interpreted by means of cluster analysis, principal components analysis and discriminant analysis. The ages of some potteries were determined by means of the thermoluminescence techniques. The results obtained in this work, in association with archaeological information, allowed for the identification of the ceramic groups relative to ceramist occupations at Justino Site and for the definition of the reference groups according to the chemical composition. The burning technology was established for some potteries and the relative ages among the compositional groups were determined by means of TL. Thus, this work provides contributions to the reconstmction of the prehistory of the communities which lived in the Baixo São Francisco region, and to the reconstitution of the general frame of the ceramist population from Brazilian Northeast. 89 5.4.3 Ocupações antigas: Comparação entre o Cemitério B e o sítio São José 95 5.4.4 Ocupações recentes: Comparação entre os sítios Porto Belo, Saco da Onça Vitória Régia e Curituba 97 5.4.5 Sífios de cronologias diferenciadas: Comparação entre os sítios Porto Belo, Jusfino (B) e Curituba 100 5.5 Datação termoluminescente 102 5.6 Temperatura de queima e composição mineralógica 109 6 CONCLUSÕES 113 SUGESTÕES PARA TRABALHOS FUTUROS 115 REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS 117 COESÃO mmX-Ct: MUCLCAR/SF-IPEN i: