Over the past several decades the geochemical study of archaeological sediments has experienced an increase in interest from archaeologists in search of new methods to investigate spatial organization and space function. Used with other proxies like geophysics, archaeobotany and micromorphology, geochemistry provides a new insight into microscopic pollution generated by past human activities, and thus can explain or confirm the function of features and spaces. Portable X‐ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry offers new perspectives to the archaeological community to test, develop and integrate geochemical surveys in the daily routine of fieldwork, especially in the developer‐funded archaeology sector. We have undertaken over 20 geochemical surveys using pXRF spectrometry, both in the field and on bulk samples, and from a wide variety of sites, sedimentological, and chronological contexts. Working exclusively on developer‐funded projects, we present a series of results detailing a range of chemical element associations, including details on how the data is organized spatially and how these data may be interpreted. For some associations, such as that between phosphorus, calcium and strontium, our work confirms and builds on existing studies. For other elements such as zirconium, or the association between potassium, chromium and vanadium, our work presents new data patterns as well as a series of new hypothesis; the interpretation of these patterns remains at an early stage and we hope that further work will be done to test and detail the origins of these chemical associations and enrichments, with the goal of confirming the human activities and/or natural processes from which they originated. The rapidity and cost‐efficiency of pXRF, especially when used in situ in the field, makes it the ideal method for documenting the geochemical characteristics of landscapes; the approach we have developed means that geochemical survey can become a regular part of archaeological practice.

中文翻译：

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通过pXRF光谱法对考古定居点和特征进行大规模地球化学调查：方法的新观点

在过去的几十年中，考古沉积物的地球化学研究引起了考古学家对寻找研究空间组织和空间功能的新方法的兴趣的增长。与地球物理学，古植物学和微形态学等其他代理人一起使用时，地球化学为人类过去活动所产生的微观污染提供了新的见解，从而可以解释或确认特征和空间的功能。便携式X射线荧光（pXRF）光谱学为考古界提供了新的视角，可以在田野工作的日常工作中，尤其是在开发商资助的考古领域中测试，开发和整合地球化学调查。我们已经使用pXRF光谱仪进行了20多次地球化学调查，无论是在野外还是在大块样品上，以及来自各种地点的 沉积学和年代学背景。我们专门从事由开发人员资助的项目，我们提供了一系列结果，详细介绍了一系列化学元素的关联，包括有关数据如何在空间上组织以及如何解释这些数据的详细信息。对于某些关联，例如磷，钙和锶之间的关联，我们的工作证实并建立在现有研究的基础上。对于锆等其他元素，或钾，铬和钒之间的关联，我们的工作提出了新的数据模式以及一系列新的假设。这些模式的解释仍处于早期阶段，我们希望将做进一步的工作来测试和详细说明这些化学缔合和富集的来源，目的在于确认其起源的人类活动和/或自然过程。pXRF的快速性和成本效益，尤其是在使用时在现场就地使用，使其成为记录景观地球化学特征的理想方法；我们开发的方法意味着地球化学调查可以成为考古实践的常规部分。