Four Decades of Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis and Its Contribution to the Archaeology of the Ancient Land of Israel

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) is a nuclear analytic method that has been applied with great success to archaeology for over four decades as a tool for determining the origin of archaeological materials. The diversity of chemical elements whose concentration can be measured with high precision and accuracy makes INAA ideal for determining the provenance of pottery and obsidian. In this paper we first briefly survey the background of the development of INAA, and then present an overview of investigations in which INAA was utilized in the study of archaeological remains from the Land of Israel, from the early Prehistoric periods until the Middle Ages. Special focus is placed on studies that opened up new vistas and understandings on various issues in the archaeological record.