Expanding Opportunities for Collaborative Archaeometry Research at IIRMES, CSULB

扩大 IIRMES、CSULB 合作考古研究的机会

• 批准号: 0917702
• 负责人: Hector Neff
• 金额: $ 29.52万
• 依托单位: California State University-Long Beach Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-01 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0917702&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Expanding; Opportunities; Collaborative; Archaeometry; Research

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).A team of archaeologists and geologists at the Institute for Integrated Research in Materials, Environments, and Societies (IIRMES), California State University - Long Beach (CSULB) will use NSF funding to support research on ancient technology, economic interaction, ancient diets, and past environments. These investigations will be implemented through an outreach program that makes IIRMES instruments and expertise available on a collaborative basis to researchers from the US and abroad.IIRMES instruments used to study the human past include a scanning-electron microscope, three inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometers (ICP-MS), a laser ablation system for solid sample analysis via ICP-MS, a stable-isotope ratio mass spectrometer, and luminescence dating equipment. The current grant will fund purchase of a portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer and an elemental analyzer for carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. The latter instrument will serve as a front-end for the stable-isotope ratio mass spectrometer, so that stable-isotope ratios can be determined in a variety of organic materials. Collaborating researchers participate in the IIRMES Archaeometry Program in two ways. First, submission and acceptance of a short proposal gains eligibility for subsidized analyses on one or more of IIRMES analytical instruments. The NSF subsidy pays for most of the costs of analysis, and the collaborating researchers pay a small per-sample cost for consumable supplies. For researchers who desire or need a more hands-on role in the analytical work, a fully subsidized short-term visiting researcher program is available. Participants in this program spend one to three weeks in Long Beach, during which they work closely with the project PIs in the generation and interpretation of analytical results. In the past, the visiting researcher program has been especially valuable for graduate students working on MA and Ph.D. theses, since they gain practical experience that they can take with them into their future professional careers.One major way in which analytical work at IIRMES promotes understanding of prehistory and history is through the determination of sources of stone-tool raw material, clays for ceramics, and metal ores. Once sources are identified, patterns of human-population movement and economic interaction can be reconstructed by comparing locations of discovery with the location of production determined via analysis. Although trace-element analysis via ICP-MS or XRF is the standard approach to such source-determination studies, stable isotopes can be useful for turquoise, marine-shell, bone, and ivory.Stable-isotope ratios are also useful in environmental reconstruction and dietary studies. For instance, enrichment of carbon-13 in a sediment core can be used as an indication of increasing maize and weedy species in a watershed, thus providing evidence to check the results of pollen studies. Oxygen-18 enrichment, meanwhile, can be a marker for rainfall variation in carbonates, such as speleothems and shells. And carbon and nitrogen isotopes are widely used in paleodietary studies of human bone and faunal remains.This project builds on a model of shared analytical resources that has served archaeology well during the past two decades. In this model, the NSF Archaeometry Program partially funds labs with demonstrated long-term commitments to collaborative archaeological research. With the NSF subsidy, analysis costs are much more affordable for academic researchers, so that it becomes practical to plan analytical efforts involving sample sizes large enough to address significant archaeological questions. The project will also have important impacts locally on the research and education environment at CSULB, a designated Hispanic-serving institution in the heart of the largest urban area on the west coast. Diverse CSULB students from departments in several colleges benefit from the opportunity to use state-of-the-art analytical instruments in geology, biology, chemistry, and archaeology, and in research projects that join one or more of these fields. Support for CSULB students and visiting researchers requested here helps populate the lab with committed researchers from a range of disciplines, which furthers IIRMES' interdisciplinary mission. This environment encourages students to ignore disciplinary boundaries that may restrict their scientific creativity.

该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助。加州州立大学-长滩（CSULB）材料、环境和社会综合研究所（IIRMES）的考古学家和地质学家团队将使用NSF资金支持古代技术、经济互动、古代饮食和过去环境的研究。这些调查将通过一个外展计划来实施，该计划将使IIRMES仪器和专业知识在合作的基础上提供给美国和国外的研究人员。IIRMES用于研究人类过去的仪器包括扫描电子显微镜，三个电感耦合等离子体质谱仪（ICP-MS），通过ICP-MS进行固体样品分析的激光烧蚀系统，稳定同位素比质谱仪，和发光测年设备。目前的赠款将用于购买便携式X射线荧光（XRF）光谱仪和碳，氢，氮，氧和硫的元素分析仪。后一种仪器将作为稳定同位素比质谱仪的前端，以便可以确定各种有机材料中的稳定同位素比。合作研究人员以两种方式参与IIRMES考古计划。首先，提交并接受一份简短的提案，就有资格获得对一种或多种IRMES分析仪器的补贴分析。国家科学基金会的补贴支付了大部分的分析费用，合作的研究人员支付了一小部分消耗品的样品费用。对于那些希望或需要在分析工作中发挥更实际作用的研究人员，可以提供完全补贴的短期访问研究员计划。该计划的参与者将在长滩停留一到三周，在此期间，他们将与项目PI密切合作，生成和解释分析结果。在过去，访问研究员计划一直是特别有价值的研究生工作的硕士和博士。研究所的分析工作促进对史前史和历史的理解的一个主要方式是通过确定石器原材料、陶瓷粘土和金属矿石的来源。一旦确定了来源，就可以通过比较发现的地点和通过分析确定的生产地点，重建人口流动和经济互动的模式。虽然通过ICP-MS或XRF进行痕量元素分析是此类来源确定研究的标准方法，但稳定同位素可用于绿松石、海贝壳、骨和象牙。稳定同位素比率也可用于环境重建和饮食研究。例如，沉积物芯样中碳-13的富集可用作流域中玉米和杂草物种增加的指示，从而为检查花粉研究结果提供证据。同时，氧-18富集可以作为碳酸盐岩（如洞穴沉积物和贝壳）降雨变化的标志。碳和氮同位素被广泛用于人类骨骼和动物遗骸的古饮食研究。该项目建立在一个共享分析资源模型的基础上，该模型在过去二十年中很好地服务于考古学。在这种模式下，NSF考古计划部分资助实验室，并证明长期致力于合作考古研究。有了NSF的补贴，学术研究人员的分析成本更容易负担得起，因此计划分析工作变得实际，涉及足够大的样本量来解决重大的考古问题。该项目还将对CSULB的研究和教育环境产生重要影响，CSULB是西海岸最大城市地区中心的指定西班牙裔服务机构。来自几所大学部门的不同CSULB学生受益于使用地质学，生物学，化学和考古学中最先进的分析仪器的机会，以及加入一个或多个这些领域的研究项目。支持CSULB学生和访问研究人员在这里要求帮助填充实验室与致力于研究人员从一系列学科，这进一步IRMES的跨学科使命。这种环境鼓励学生忽视可能限制他们科学创造力的学科界限。