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对人类居住和迁移的地点、原材料供应、物体传记、技术趋势以及社会经济和文化交流做出具体而准确的描述。这些数据促进了目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）的考古测量实验室专门从事考古材料的来源和成分分析，包括陶瓷，燧石，黑曜石，颜料和金属。考古测量实验室的长期成功建立了一个无与伦比的人工制品和原材料化学成分数据库，增强了未来分析研究的解释力，并为使用现有数据的大规模研究项目提供了原材料。该实验室支持各种各样的项目，每年培训学生、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考古测量实验室专注于元素和同位素分析，以便使用中子活化分析（NAA）， x射线荧光（XRF），拉曼光谱（RS）和电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）（包括激光烧蚀系统和多收集器）检查各种文物的生产，交换和运动。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研究组织的学生和教师提供负担得起的化学和同位素分析；(2)培养本科生和研究生选择和使用实验室分析方法；（三）提供工程设计、统计分析、化学、同位素数据解释等方面的咨询意见；(4)由许多学科的考古学家、地质学家和科学家向公众开放成分数据库。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.