Support for the Archaeometry Laboratory at MURR

通过考古科学的视角，地球化学数据集可以产生关于人们在哪里居住和迁徙、原材料供应、物品传记、技术趋势以及社会经济和文化交流的具体和准确的描述。这些数据促进了当前对文化进化和适应的理论理解，并可以为人口流动、资源开发、社会网络和土地利用模式的现代研究提供信息。为此，密苏里大学研究反应堆(MURR)的考古实验室专门研究考古材料的来源和成分分析，包括陶瓷、硅石、黑铁矿、颜料和金属。考古实验室的长期成功产生了一个无与伦比的文物和原材料化学成分数据库，增强了未来分析研究的解释能力，并利用现有数据为大型研究项目提供原材料。该实验室每年支持各种项目，培训学生、研究生实习生、研究人员和访问学者，并通过MURR工作人员与外部研究人员、学生教育和专业出版物之间的密切科学合作，为知识传播做出贡献。MURR考古实验室专注于元素和同位素分析，以检查各种文物的产生、交换和移动，使用中子激活分析(NAA)、X射线荧光(XRF)、拉曼光谱(RS)和包括激光烧蚀系统和多收集器在内的电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICP-MS)。该实验室还支持对各种火成岩、变质岩和沉积岩的岩石成因进行地球化学研究。MURR考古实验室的广泛影响包括：(1)为美国学术部门和非营利性研究组织的学生和教职员工提供负担得起的化学和同位素分析；(2)培训本科生和研究生选择和使用实验室分析方法；(3)在项目设计、统计分析和化学和同位素数据解释方面提供建议；(4)考古学家、地质学家和来自多个学科的科学家公开访问成分数据库。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Through the lens of archaeological science, geochemical datasets can produce specific and accurate descriptions of where people lived and migrated, raw material provisioning, object biographies, technological trends, and socioeconomic and cultural exchange. Such data advance current theoretical understandings of cultural evolution and adaptations, and can inform modern studies of population movements, resource exploitation, social networks, and land-use patterns. To this end, the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) specializes in the provenance and compositional analysis of archaeological materials including ceramics, chert, obsidian, pigments, and metals. The long-term success of the Archaeometry Laboratory has resulted in an unparalleled database of artifact and raw material chemical compositions that enhance the explanatory power of future analytical studies as well as provide the raw material for large-scale research projects using existing data. The laboratory supports a wide variety of projects, trains students, graduate interns, researchers, and visiting scholars every year, and contributes to knowledge diffusion through close scientific collaborations between MURR staff and outside researchers, student education, and professional publications.The MURR Archaeometry Laboratory focuses on elemental and isotopic analysis in order to examine the production, exchange, and movement of a broad variety of artifacts using neutron activation analysis (NAA), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Raman spectroscopy (RS), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) including a laser ablation system and a multi-collector. The laboratory also supports geochemical research on the petrogenesis of various igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. Broader impacts of the Archaeometry Laboratory at MURR include: (1) availability of affordable chemical and isotopic analyses for students and faculty from academic departments and non-profit research organizations in the US; (2) training of undergraduate and graduate students in the selection and use of laboratory methods of analysis; (3) advice in project design, statistical analysis, and interpretation of the chemical and isotopic data; and (4) public access by archaeologists, geologists, and scientists from many disciplines to the compositional database.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.