Elemental Analysis of the Molding Paste of Medieval Oriental Faiences

This publication is devoted to the analysis of ceramic items found in Bolgar, the capital of Volga Bulgaria (now it is the territory of Tatarstan, Russia). Neutron activation analysis (NAA) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of the ceramic paste of glazed medieval stonepaste ceramics (fritware) was carried out by the NAA group at the IREN facility of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. The batch was transferred from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and included 13 samples. For the first time, the task was to comparatively study stonepaste of wares produced in different countries of the East. The results were compared with data on similar ceramics previously published by other researchers.