Support for the Elemental Analysis Facility at The Field Museum of Natural History

该奖项将继续美国国家科学基金会（NSF）对芝加哥菲尔德自然历史博物馆的元素分析设施（EAF）的支持，该设施为陶瓷，玻璃，金属和颜料等古代材料的快速成分分析提供仪器，以加强对非常广泛的人类学主题的研究。研究人员能够以非破坏性的方式分析考古样品的主要，次要和微量元素，以解决与美洲，非洲，大洋洲，欧洲和亚洲的文化生产，互动和交流考古学相关的问题，并推进菲尔德博物馆着名人类学收藏品的材料保护事业。EAF为菲尔德博物馆社区以及来自芝加哥地区，中西部和世界各地的学者和学生提供服务，提供财政支持以抵消旅行和住宿费用以及部分分析费用。菲尔德博物馆现场实验室的存在为研究博物馆独特藏品中的文物创造了机会，这些藏品无法轻易地转移到外部分析设施。EAF还支持本科生和研究生的研究和培训。学生通过进行自己的分析开始进入分析过程，并在方法开发，数据的统计处理和解释方面进行培训。这项研究的结果将为菲尔德博物馆未来的展览和教育活动提供信息，该博物馆每年为数十万学童和数百万游客提供科学教育和宣传。EAF包括扫描电子显微镜，能量色散光谱仪（SEM-EDS）和电感耦合等离子体质谱仪（ICP-MS）。ICP-MS可以配备两个激光器。其中一台激光器专门用于对小物体进行高通量采样，而第二台激光器是一台完全独特的定制改造设备，可容纳大型物体。该设备配备了三台便携式XRF仪器，可在博物馆或现场对文物进行完全非侵入性的调查。该项目的智力价值包括建立来自世界各地的考古和民族学材料的广泛的新数据集，这些数据集直接为有关古代贸易和交换，技术及其与世界各地社会复杂性发展的关系的假设提供信息。通过为古代材料的调查提供专业知识，将领先的学者和研究生与博物馆的广泛收藏联系起来，并为他们提供分析这些独一无二的集合的工具，该项目将大大提高对文化生产在复杂社会发展中的作用的理解。

This award will continue National Science Foundation (NSF) support for the Elemental Analysis Facility (EAF) at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, which provides instrumentation for the rapid compositional analysis of ancient materials like ceramics, glass, metals, and pigments, to enhance research on a very wide range of anthropological topics. Researchers are able to analyze archaeological samples for major, minor, and trace elements in a non-destructive manner to address questions related to the archaeology of cultural production, interaction and exchange in the Americas, Africa, Oceania, Europe, and Asia, and advance the cause of material conservation of The Field Museum's renowned anthropology collections. The EAF serves the Field Museum community as well as scholars and students from the Chicago area, the Midwest and throughout the world, by offering financial support to offset travel and accommodation expenses as well as part of the analytical costs. The presence of an on-site laboratory at the Field Museum creates the opportunity to study artifacts from the unique collections of the museum that could not be moved easily to outside analytical facilities. The EAF also supports undergraduate and graduate student research and training. Students are initiated into the analytical process by undertaking their own analyses and are trained in method development, the statistical processing of the data, and interpretation. Results of this research will inform future exhibits and education activities of The Field Museum, which provides science education and outreach for hundreds of thousands of school children and millions of visitors annually.The EAF includes a scanning electron microscope with an energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS), and inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The ICP-MS can be fitted with two lasers. One of the lasers is dedicated to the sampling of small objects with a high throughput, whereas the second laser, a totally unique, custom-transformed apparatus, accommodates large objects. This equipment is complemented by three portable XRF instruments for totally non-invasive investigations of artifacts on the premises of the Museum or in the field. The intellectual merits of the project include the establishment of extensive new datasets of archaeological and ethnological material from around the world that directly inform hypotheses about ancient trade and exchange, technology, and their relationship to the development of social complexity around the world. By providing expertise for the investigation of ancient material, linking leading scholars and graduate students to the museum's extensive collections, and giving them the tools to analyze these one-of-a-kind assemblages, the project will significantly enhance understanding of the role of cultural production in the development of complex societies.