Research Article | OPEN ACCESS
X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Analysis of Proto-historic Votive Tablets from Chawas Cave, Hulu Kelantan, Malaysia
1Zuliskandar Ramli, 1Nik Hassan Shuhami Nik Abdul Rahman, 1Abdul Latif Samian, 2Muhammad Rizal Razman, 2Sharifah Zarina Syed Zakaria, 3Adnan Jusoh, 3Yunus Sauman and 4Hossein Sarhaddi Dadian
1Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation (ATMA)
2Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI), the National University of Malaysia, 43600, UKM Bangi Selangor, Malaysia
3History Department, Faculty of Human Science, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris,
35900 Tanjong Malim, Perak
4Department of Archaeology, University of Zabol, Iran
Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 2014 7:1381-1387
Received: April 26, 2013 | Accepted: June 21, 2013 | Published: February 20, 2014
Abstract
This research was conducted to determine the origin of votive tablets found in prehistoric and proto-historic site of Chawas Cave in Hulu Kelantan. The votive tablets found in Chawas Cave showed several Buddhist images which are associated with the Srivijaya Kingdom which existed from 7th century AD until 12th century AD. To determine if the votive tablets were produced by communities that lived in Hulu Kelantan, hence the study of the chemical composition of the votive tablets should be carried out. Two techniques were employed in this research, namely the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) techniques. The techniques will determine the mineral content as well as the major and trace element content of the votive tablets. Analysis showed that all the votive tablet samples have mineral known as clinochlore. Clinochlore is one of the chlorites, namely a group of phyllosilicate minerals. Chlorite is commonly found in igneous rocks as an alteration product of mafic minerals such as pyroxene, amphibole and biotite. The votive tablets were found in a cave which consisted of limestone cave formation and it showed that the votive tablets were not produced by the local community of Hulu Kelantan. Major elements also showed that the chemical composition of the votive tablets is not similar to the composition of clay samples taken from several rivers in Hulu Kelantan.
Keywords:
Chawas cave, hulu kelantan, srivijaya, votive tablet, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF),
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Competing interests
The authors have no competing interests.
Open Access Policy
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
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The authors have no competing interests.
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