SEM and Electron Microprobe Analysis of Ceramics from Machu Picchu, Peru

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，伯格博士和他的 同事们将对出土的陶器进行技术分析， 马丘比丘考古遗址位于 秘鲁的安第斯山脉。早期由希拉姆宾厄姆发现 20世纪初，这是最壮观的印加遗址之一， 每年都有大量的游客参观。然而尽管 它的名气和宾厄姆进行的大规模挖掘， 很好地理解了网站的功能以及网站的目的 为印加帝国效力。通过陶瓷分析，伯格博士将 解决这个问题。他会取一份陶瓷材料的样本 并使它们经受组合扫描电子显微镜（SEM）， 电子探针检验通过前一种技术，他将 深入了解制造过程，这将使他 确定标准化程度。后一种技术 能让他确定糊状物的元素组成 让伯格博士推断它是否来自一个 地理来源或多个。在此基础上，他可以开始 重建这些国家的经济和政治背景， 分发和制作了必要的材料。 印加人建立了一个从厄瓜多尔到 阿根廷和从安第斯山脉的高地到干旱的 太平洋海岸。既无文字又无集中的市场 系统，他们能够集成大量不同 将人民纳入一个单一的政治体系。考古学家希望 了解他们是如何做到这一点的，以及印加人是如何做到这一点的。 系统开发。对陶器的研究显然是精英阶层 背景应该提供洞察力。 除了这项研究将提供有关印加的知识外， 史前史，它是重要的，因为方法论 它将做出的贡献。虽然结合SEM电子 微探针目前用于地质研究， 应用于考古学背景。如果成功的话， 大大简化了陶瓷分析师的工作。伯格博士的研究 构成了第一个实际测试和方法 影响是相当大的。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Burger and his colleagues will conduct a technical analysis of pottery excavated at the archaeological site of Machu Picchu which is located in the Andes mountains of Peru. Discovered by Hiram Bingham in the early 1900s, this is one of the most spectacular Incan sites and is visited by large numbers of tourists each year. However despite it's fame and extensive excavations conducted by Bingham, it is not well understood how the site functioned and what purpose within the Incan empire it served. Through ceramic analysis Dr. Burger will address this question. He will take a sample of ceramic materials and subject them to combined scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electron microprobe examination. With the former technique he will gain insight into the manufacturing process and this will allow him to determine the degree of standardization. The latter technique will permit him to determine the elemental composition of the paste and allow Dr. Burger to infer whether it derived from one geographical source or many. On this basis he can begin to reconstruct the economic and political context in which these essential materials were distributed and produced. The Inca peoples created an empire which spread from Ecuador to Argentina and from the heights of the Andes mountains to the arid Pacific coasts. Lacking both writing and a centralized market system they were able to integrate large numbers of disparate peoples into a single political system. Archaeologists wish to understand how they were able to accomplish this and how the Incan system developed. The study of pottery in what is clearly an elite context should provide insight. In addition to the knowledge this research will provide about Incan prehistory, it is important because of the methodological contribution it will make. Although the combined SEM electron microprobe is currently used in geological studies it has not been applied an archaeological contexts. If it is successful it may greatly simplify ceramic analysts' work. Dr. Burger's research constitutes a first practical test and the methodological implications are considerable.