SEM and Electron Microprobe Analysis of Ceramics from Machu Picchu, Peru

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Burger博士和他的同事将对位于秘鲁安第斯山脉的马丘比丘考古遗址出土的陶器进行技术分析。由希拉姆·宾厄姆在20世纪初发现，这是印加最壮观的景点之一，每年都有大量游客前来参观。然而，尽管它很出名，宾厄姆进行了广泛的挖掘，但人们并不清楚该遗址是如何运作的，以及它在印加帝国内服务的目的是什么。通过陶瓷分析，Burger博士将解决这个问题。他将采集陶瓷材料的样本，并对它们进行扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和电子探针的联合检查。使用前一种技术，他将深入了解制造过程，这将使他能够确定标准化程度。后一种技术将允许他确定糊状物的元素组成，并允许Burger博士推断它是来自一个地理来源还是多个地理来源。在此基础上，他可以开始重建分发和生产这些基本材料的经济和政治背景。印加人民建立了一个帝国，从厄瓜多尔扩展到阿根廷，从安第斯山脉的高处扩展到干旱的太平洋海岸。他们既没有文字，也没有集中的市场体系，他们能够将大量不同的民族整合到一个单一的政治体系中。考古学家希望了解他们是如何做到这一点的，以及印加系统是如何发展起来的。在一个明显是精英背景的背景下研究陶器，应该会提供一些见解。除了这项研究将提供关于印加史前的知识外，这一点也很重要，因为它将做出方法论上的贡献。虽然组合扫描电子探针目前被用于地质研究，但还没有应用于考古背景下。如果它成功了，它可能会极大地简化陶瓷分析师的工作。Burger博士的研究构成了第一个实际检验，其方法论意义重大。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Burger and his colleagues will conduct a technical analysis of pottery excavated at the archaeological site of Machu Picchu which is located in the Andes mountains of Peru. Discovered by Hiram Bingham in the early 1900s, this is one of the most spectacular Incan sites and is visited by large numbers of tourists each year. However despite it's fame and extensive excavations conducted by Bingham, it is not well understood how the site functioned and what purpose within the Incan empire it served. Through ceramic analysis Dr. Burger will address this question. He will take a sample of ceramic materials and subject them to combined scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electron microprobe examination. With the former technique he will gain insight into the manufacturing process and this will allow him to determine the degree of standardization. The latter technique will permit him to determine the elemental composition of the paste and allow Dr. Burger to infer whether it derived from one geographical source or many. On this basis he can begin to reconstruct the economic and political context in which these essential materials were distributed and produced. The Inca peoples created an empire which spread from Ecuador to Argentina and from the heights of the Andes mountains to the arid Pacific coasts. Lacking both writing and a centralized market system they were able to integrate large numbers of disparate peoples into a single political system. Archaeologists wish to understand how they were able to accomplish this and how the Incan system developed. The study of pottery in what is clearly an elite context should provide insight. In addition to the knowledge this research will provide about Incan prehistory, it is important because of the methodological contribution it will make. Although the combined SEM electron microprobe is currently used in geological studies it has not been applied an archaeological contexts. If it is successful it may greatly simplify ceramic analysts' work. Dr. Burger's research constitutes a first practical test and the methodological implications are considerable.