The Development of a Low-Cost and High-Throughput Dating System for Prehistoric Ceramics

史前陶瓷低成本高通量测年系统的开发

• 批准号: 0960121
• 负责人: Carl Lipo
• 金额: $ 31.01万
• 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: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-03-15 至 2013-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0960121&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Low; Cost; Throughput; Dating

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)Researchers at the Institute for Integrated Research in Materials, Environments, and Societies (IIRMES), California State University - Long Beach (CSULB) will use NSF Major Research Instrumentation funding to develop a new instrument for dating prehistoric ceramics. Results obtained by materials scientists indicate that low-fired ceramics, such as bricks, tiles, and pottery, gain weight and expand by a process of water absorption that is highly regular on time scales from weeks to millennia. The age of a low-fired ceramic can thus be obtained via highly precise measurement of initial weight, followed by dehydroxylation (firing above 500oC), followed by precise monitoring of weight gain over five to ten days in order to establish the rate of rehydroxylation. The proposed new instrument will automate these steps within a controlled environment to enable large numbers of ceramics to be dated at low cost. In archaeology, determination of the age of artifacts is central to the success of the discipline. Over the years, archaeologists have made use of a wide array of dating techniques: radiocarbon dating, luminescence dating, tree-ring dating, obsidian hydration, electron spin resonance, uranium/thorium series dating and so on. Each technique is best for particular materials and particular time ranges.Ceramic technology was invented independently in multiple world regions during the past 10,000 years, and, since ceramics are durable, archaeologists routinely find broken pieces of pottery, tiles, bricks, and figurines by the thousands (or more) on archaeological sites in many regions of the world. Effective techniques for dating ceramics are thus particularly valuable for the discipline. Unfortunately, however, luminescence, the main technique currently used for dating ceramics, is relatively difficult and expensive. Initial experiments have shown that the rehydroxylation method promises very high precision with relatively simple measurements and instruments. Configured for large numbers of simultaneous measurements, rehydroxylation has the potential to reduce per sample cost dramatically, thus dramatically increasing the number of dates that can be run on any given archaeological project. Moreover, the relative simplicity of the instrumentation means that it could be disseminated to a wide range of laboratory settings.The NSF-supported project being undertaken at IIRMES-CSULB seeks to develop instrumentation and protocols that are optimized for efficient production of rehydroxylation measurements on ceramics. The automated instrument system will retain the precision of the rehydroxylation dating method while dramatically increasing the rate of sample throughput. The project directors anticipate that the new instrumentation will have important, even revolutionary, impacts on archaeological research.

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）的研究人员在材料，环境和社会综合研究所（IIRMES），加州州立大学-长滩（CSULB）将使用NSF主要研究仪器的资金，以开发一种新的工具，测年史前陶瓷。 材料科学家获得的结果表明，低烧制的陶瓷，如砖，瓷砖和陶器，通过吸水过程增加重量和膨胀，这在从几周到几千年的时间尺度上是非常有规律的。因此，低烧陶瓷的年龄可以通过高度精确地测量初始重量，然后进行脱羟基（在500 ℃以上烧制），然后精确监测5至10天内的增重，以确定再羟基化速率来获得。拟议中的新仪器将在受控环境中自动执行这些步骤，以低成本对大量陶瓷进行日期测定。在考古学中，确定文物的年龄是学科成功的核心。 多年来，考古学家利用了各种各样的测年技术：放射性碳测年、发光测年、树木年轮测年、黑曜石水化测年、电子自旋共振测年、铀/钍系测年等。每种技术都适用于特定的材料和特定的时间范围。陶瓷技术是在过去的一万年中在世界多个地区独立发明的，由于陶瓷耐用，考古学家经常在世界许多地区的考古遗址上发现数以千计（或更多）的陶器，瓦片，砖块和小雕像的碎片。因此，有效的陶瓷测年技术对这一学科特别有价值。然而，不幸的是，目前用于测定陶瓷年代的主要技术发光相对困难且昂贵。初步实验表明，再羟基化方法保证非常高的精度与相对简单的测量和仪器。配置为大量的同时测量，再羟基化有可能显着降低每个样品的成本，从而显着增加的日期，可以运行在任何给定的考古项目的数量。此外，相对简单的仪器意味着它可以传播到广泛的实验室settings.The NSF支持的项目正在进行IIRMES-CSULB的目的是开发仪器和协议，优化陶瓷上的再羟基化测量的有效生产。自动化仪器系统将保持再羟基化测年方法的精确度，同时显著提高样品吞吐率。项目负责人预计，新仪器将对考古研究产生重要的，甚至是革命性的影响。