Acquisition of a High-Resolution ICP-MS for the Archaeometry Laboratory at MURR

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，迈克尔·格拉斯科克博士和赫克托·内夫博士将购买VG Axiom单收集器高分辨率电感耦合等离子体质谱仪系统和相关部件，以及VG MicroProbe II激光消融系统。与实验室现在使用的INAA一样，电感耦合质谱学能够对包括玻璃、金属、岩屑和陶瓷在内的地质材料进行高灵敏度、高分辨率的多元素表征，这些材料往往是考古来源调查的重点。自1988年以来，密苏里大学考古实验室由格拉斯科克博士和内夫博士领导的密苏里大学考古实验室得到了NSF的资助，用于资助美国大学和研究机构的研究人员进行考古应用的INAA费用。这使其得以参与约200个与考古学家合作的研究项目，并完成了对一系列考古材料的40000多项中子活化分析。在这一过程中，来自多个机构的80多名学生接受了培训，从而获得了28个研究生学位。考古遗址材料的来源确定使人们能够深入了解史前流动性和贸易网络。在这种信息的基础上，往往有可能重建生存、经济和政治制度。因此，在世界许多地区使用不同时间段的不同材料的考古学家都依赖密苏里州的实验室来获取数据。电感耦合等离子体质谱为痕量元素分析提供了一种成本较低的方法；另一个优势是能够确定同位素比率。有了电感耦合等离子体质谱仪，实验室提供的考古服务范围将会扩大。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Michael Glascock and Hector Neff will purchase a VG Axiom single collector high resolution ICP-Mass Spectrometer system and related components as well as a VG MicroProbe II laser ablation system. Like INAA which the laboratory now employs, inductively-coupled mass spectroscopy is capable of high-sensitivity, high-resolution multi-element characterization of geological materials including glass, metal, lithics and ceramics which are often the focus of archaeological provenance investigations. ICP-MS also permits the direct determination of isotope ratios which will further enhance the provenance determination capabilities of the laboratory.Since 1988 the University of Missouri Archaeometry Lab directed by Drs. Glascock and Neff has received NSF funding to subsidize the cost of INAA for archaeological applications by researchers at US universities and research institutes. This has allowed involvement in approximately 200 collaborative research projects with archaeologists and completion of over 40,000 neutron activation analyses of a range of archaeological materials. In the process over 80 students from multiple institutions have been trained and this has led to 28 graduate degrees. Provenience determination of materials from archaeological sites permits insight into prehistoric mobility and trade networks. On the basis of such information it is often possible to reconstruct subsistence, economic and political systems. Therefore a wide range of archeologists who work with different materials from multiple time periods in many parts of the world have relied on the Missouri laboratory for sourcing data. ICP-MS provides a less expensive approach to trace element analysis; an additional advantage is the ability to determine isotope ratios. With an ICP-MS the range of archaeological services provided by the laboratory will be increased.