Mineralogical Characterization of Archaeological Materials using a Portable Spectrometer

在国家科学基金会的支持下，莎拉·威斯曼博士和她的合作者将测试将近红外光谱法应用于考古分析的可行性。她将购买一台PIMA反射光谱仪来测定人工制品的矿物成分。由于史前人类使用的粘土或其他材料的许多来源在矿物学上是不同的，因此通常可以通过化学分析将考古遗址中发现的成品文物与其原料来源相匹配，从而重建史前贸易路线和相互作用模式。PIMA有可能解决许多导致考古学家使用矿物学分析减少的问题。该仪器是完全无损和便携式的，其重量轻和“手枪握把”意味着它可以在几乎所有的现场设置中使用。该仪器的成本相对较低，分析速度快，每分钟一次，这意味着可以在现场、博物馆和可能的来源地点进行地质筛选获得大量样品。由于这种方法尚未在考古领域得到广泛应用，魏斯曼博士设计了一个项目，既要解决一个重要的人类学问题，又要测试这种方法的可行性。她将重点关注过去2000年来美国中西部地区的石雕雕像和雕像管道。这些文物与中部林地和密西西比文化有关，考古学家解释说，这些文物表明存在一个从中西部北部延伸到墨西哥湾沿岸的长途贸易网络。因为大多数是在仪式背景下使用的，一种与宗教/仪式控制相关的等级制社会组织形式已经被假设。魏斯曼博士收集的来源信息可以直接解决这个问题。初步数据表明，大部分物质相对来说来自当地，而不是遥远的地方。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将评估具有很高考古潜力的新仪器的效用。它还将为史前美国复杂社会的发展提供新的线索。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Sarah Wisseman and her collaborators will test the feasibility of applying near-infra red spectrometry to archaeological analysis. She will purchase a PIMA reflectance spectrometer to determine artifact minerological composition. Because many sources for clay or other materials used by prehistoric peoples are minerologically distinct, it is often possible through chemical analysis to match finished artifacts recovered in archaeological sites to their raw material source and thus reconstruct prehistoric trade routes and interaction patterns. PIMA has the potential to solve many of the problems that have led to a decline in the use of mineralogical analyses by archaeologists. The instrument is completely nondestructive and portable, and its light weight and "pistol grip" mean that it can be used in virtually all field settings. The relatively low cost of the instrument and its rapid, one per minute analysis time mean that large samples sets can be acquired at field sites, in museums and for geologic screening of possible source localities. Because it has not been widely used in archaeological contexts Dr. Wisseman has designed a project both to address a significant anthropological question and to test the feasibility of this approach. She will focus on stone figurines and effigy pipes from sites occupied in the US Midwest over the last 2,000 years. Associated with Middle Woodland and Mississippian cultures, these artifacts have been interpreted by archaeologists to indicate the existence of a long distance trade network which extended from the northern Midwest to the Gulf coast. Because most were used in ritual contexts a form of hierarchical social organization associated with religious/ritual control has been hypothesized. Source information which Dr. Wisseman will collect can serve to address this issue directly. Preliminary data suggest that much of the material is of relatively local rather than distant origin.This research is important for several reasons. It will assess the utility of new instrumentation which has high archaeological potential. It will also shed new light on the development of complex societies in the prehistoric United States.