MRI: Acquisition of Laser Ablation for ICP-MS and a Handheld XRF for the W.M. Keck Center for Instrumental and Biochemical Comparative Archaeology, Millsaps College

这个奖项允许博士。Michael Galaty， George Bey和Timothy Ward为现有的Varian 820电感耦合等离子体质谱仪增加激光烧蚀能力，并购买可用于现场研究的手持式XRF光谱仪。这两种仪器将被安置在米尔萨普学院的W. M.凯克仪器和生化比较考古中心。实验室的目标是支持跨学科团队的教师和本科生解决复杂的考古问题，使用现代分析仪器。该团队目前的研究重点是利用生物化学和考古科学，通过在两个新旧世界文化系统中开发新的国家形成的历时模型，为比较考古学提供新的见解：阿尔巴尼亚的青铜时代伊利里亚人（公元前200年-公元0年）和墨西哥尤卡坦的形成性玛雅文化（公元前900年-公元250年）。由于尚未尝试对这种新旧世界文化进行系统和跨学科的比较，因此这项研究有可能对理解复杂社会的发展产生重大贡献。“国家”何时以及为什么在某些地方而不是其他地方形成，在某些时间而不是其他时间形成，这个问题具有广泛的科学兴趣。一种方法——这里采用的方法——是比较影响两个不同地区社会复杂性的因素，从而启发两者的研究。除了手头已有的仪器之外，所要求的仪器将提供一套有价值的分析工具。例如，它将有可能表征一系列考古材料的基本化学成分，如陶器、破碎和磨碎的石头和金属，并确定痕量残留物。这将允许确定特定文物的使用，并追踪它们从源头到考古遗址的移动轨迹。这将有可能重建贸易和有关的经济制度，从而确定通常被认为与社会复杂性上升有关的一系列社会因素。凯克中心是一所小型学院，完全面向本科生，强调参与式、“动手”式的学习。它有可能向大量本科生介绍跨学科领域和实验室研究的力量，实验室提供后续服务以进一步实现这一目标。该仪器将提高研究和教育的效率。

This award permits Drs. Michael Galaty, George Bey and Timothy Ward to add a laser ablation capability to an extant Varian 820 inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and to purchase a handheld XRF spectrometer which can be used in field research. Both instruments will be housed in Millsap College's W. M. Keck Center for Instrumental and Biochemical Comparative Archaeology. The goal of the laboratory is to support interdisciplinary teams of faculty and undergraduate students in addressing complex archaeological questions using modern analytical instrumentation. The focus of the team's current research is to use biochemical and archaeometric science to provide new insight into comparative archaeology by developing new diachronic models of state formation in two Old and New World cultural systems: the Bronze-Age Illyrians of Albania (200 BC - AD 0) and the Formative Mayan cultures of Yucatan, Mexico (900 BC - AD 250). Because a systematic and interdisciplinary comparison of such Old and New World cultures has not yet been attempted, the research has the potential to yield significant contributions to understanding the development of complex societies. The question of when and why "states" formed in some places but not others, at some times but not others, is of broad scientific interest. One approach - the one taken here - is to compare factors affecting social complexity in two different regions, thereby enlightening the study of both. The requested instrumentation, in addition to that already in hand will provide a set of valuable analytic tools. It will, for example, be possible to characterize the basic chemical composition of a range of archaeological material such as pottery, chipped and ground stone and metal and also to determine trace-residues. This will allow the use of specific artifacts to be determined and their movement traced over space from source area to archaeological site. This will make it possible to reconstruct trade and related economic systems and thus determine a range of social factors commonly believed to be implicated in the rise of social complexity.The W. M. Keck Center serves an entirely undergraduate population at a small college that emphasizes engaged, "hands-on" learning. It has the potential to introduce large numbers of undergraduate students to the power of interdisciplinary field and laboratory research and the laboratory offers followships to further this goal. The instrumentation will improve the effectiveness of both research and education.