Developing FTIR microscopy for lithic residue analysis

开发用于岩屑残渣分析的 FTIR 显微镜

• 批准号: 1420702
• 负责人: Gilliane Monnier
• 金额: $ 12.44万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1420702&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Developing; FTIR; microscopy; lithic; residue

Archaeology provides one of the best means of studying the ability of human societies to respond to climatic and environmental change. Throughout the course of human evolution, stone tools have been the primary medium by which humans have interacted with the environment through the modification of natural resources for food, shelter, clothing, and other material needs. Therefore, stone tools in archaeological sites represent one of the most important data sets for reconstructing prehistoric human adaptations. Yet one of archaeologists' greatest challenges remains the rigorous interpretation of stone tool functions. Currently, one of the ways this is done is through the identification of microscopic remains of materials worked by stone tools (e.g., plant and animal tissue), which are sometimes preserved on tool surfaces. Existing methods of microscopic residue analysis, however, are either destructive or produce ambiguous results. Newer, non-destructive, replicable methods based upon analytical chemistry are available, but need to be developed. This project will develop Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) microscopy as a new method of residue analysis. It will have three major impacts. First, application of this method will provide a more direct means of inferring past human activities than the current ambiguous approaches. Second, the development of FTIR microscopy for residue analysis will provide a non-destructive means of identifying not only residues, but the composition of most archaeological materials, such as paints, pigments, textiles, food residues, ceramics, and the like. This has crucial implications for the conservation of the non-renewable archaeological record of the United States, the cultural patrimony of the United States. It also has important implications for heritage studies at home and abroad, as indigenous groups are increasingly wary about the destruction of cultural artifacts. The development of non-destructive, non-invasive methods such as this one will be a boon to researchers working with ethnographic and prehistoric materials of all kinds. Third, this project will train graduate and undergraduate students (many of whom are women, including ethnic minorities) in cutting-edge scientific methods, providing skills applicable to a wide range of jobs.The aim of this project is to create a library of experimental reference samples of FTIR reflectance spectra that will be standards against which archaeological spectra can be compared. The standards will include some of the most common residues on stone tools, such as animal muscle, fat, skin, bone, and hair; bird feathers; fish scales; plant fibers, wood, resin, ochre, and manganese. These residues will be generated experimentally on a variety of stone surfaces, from which reflectance spectra will then be obtained using FTIR microscopy. In addition, experimental pieces will be placed in a simulated burial environment for one year, to generate standards on residues altered by burial. In addition to publishing the results in peer-reviewed journals, all of the standards will be made available to the research community, in perpetuity, on open-source websites.

考古学提供了研究人类社会应对气候和环境变化能力的最佳手段之一。在整个人类进化过程中，石器一直是人类与环境互动的主要媒介，通过改变自然资源来满足食物、住所、衣物和其他物质需求。因此，考古遗址中的石器是重建史前人类适应环境的最重要的数据集之一。然而，考古学家面临的最大挑战之一仍然是对石器功能的严格解释。目前，实现这一点的方法之一是通过鉴定石器加工的材料(例如植物和动物组织)的微观遗骸，这些材料有时保存在工具表面。然而，现有的显微残留物分析方法要么是破坏性的，要么产生不明确的结果。基于分析化学的新的、非破坏性的、可复制的方法是可用的，但需要开发。这个项目将发展傅里叶变换红外(FTIR)显微镜作为一种新的残留物分析方法。它将产生三个主要影响。首先，这种方法的应用将提供一种比目前模棱两可的方法更直接地推断过去人类活动的方法。其次，用于残留物分析的FTIR显微镜的发展将提供一种非破坏性的手段，不仅可以识别残留物，而且可以识别大多数考古材料的成分，如油漆、颜料、纺织品、食物残留物、陶瓷等。这对美国不可再生的考古记录、美国的文化遗产的保护具有至关重要的影响。这对国内外的遗产研究也有重要影响，因为土著群体越来越警惕文化文物的破坏。这种非破坏性、非侵入性方法的发展将为研究各种人种学和史前材料的研究人员带来福音。第三，该项目将对研究生和本科生(其中许多是女性，包括少数民族)进行尖端科学方法培训，提供适用于各种工作的技能。该项目的目的是建立一个FTIR反射光谱实验参考样本库，作为考古光谱比较的标准。这些标准将包括石材工具上一些最常见的残留物，如动物肌肉、脂肪、皮肤、骨骼和毛发；鸟类羽毛；鱼鳞；植物纤维、木材、树脂、赭石和锰。这些残留物将在各种石头表面上实验产生，然后使用FTIR显微镜从这些表面获得反射光谱。此外，实验碎片将被放置在模拟埋葬环境中一年，以生成埋葬改变的残留物的标准。除了在同行评议的期刊上发表结果外，所有标准都将在开源网站上永久提供给研究界。