Mineralogical Characterization of Archaeological Materials using a Portable Spectrometer

在国家科学基金会的支持下，萨拉·威斯曼博士和她的合作者将测试将近红外光谱分析应用于考古分析的可行性。她将购买一台PIMA反射光谱仪来确定文物矿物成分。由于史前人类使用的粘土或其他材料的许多来源在矿物学上是不同的，因此通常可以通过化学分析将考古遗址中发现的成品文物与其原材料来源进行匹配，从而重建史前贸易路线和互动模式。PIMA具有解决许多问题的潜力，这些问题已经导致考古学家使用矿物学分析的减少。该仪器是完全无损和便携的，其轻便的重量和“手枪握力”意味着它可以在几乎所有的野外环境中使用。该仪器的成本相对较低，分析速度快，每分钟一次，这意味着可以在实地、博物馆和对可能的来源地点进行地质筛选时获得大量样品集。由于它还没有被广泛应用于考古学领域，威斯曼博士设计了一个项目，既是为了解决一个重要的人类学问题，也是为了测试这种方法的可行性。她将重点介绍美国中西部过去2000年来的石像和管子。这些文物与中伍德兰和密西西比文化联系在一起，考古学家对这些文物的解释表明，从中西部北部延伸到墨西哥湾海岸的长途贸易网络的存在。由于大多数是在仪式背景下使用的，因此假设了一种与宗教/仪式控制有关的等级社会组织形式。威斯曼博士将收集的来源信息可以直接解决这个问题。初步数据表明，许多材料来自相对本地，而不是遥远的地方。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将评估具有很高考古潜力的新仪器的效用。它还将为史前美国复杂社会的发展提供新的线索。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Sarah Wisseman and her collaborators will test the feasibility of applying near-infra red spectrometry to archaeological analysis. She will purchase a PIMA reflectance spectrometer to determine artifact minerological composition. Because many sources for clay or other materials used by prehistoric peoples are minerologically distinct, it is often possible through chemical analysis to match finished artifacts recovered in archaeological sites to their raw material source and thus reconstruct prehistoric trade routes and interaction patterns. PIMA has the potential to solve many of the problems that have led to a decline in the use of mineralogical analyses by archaeologists. The instrument is completely nondestructive and portable, and its light weight and "pistol grip" mean that it can be used in virtually all field settings. The relatively low cost of the instrument and its rapid, one per minute analysis time mean that large samples sets can be acquired at field sites, in museums and for geologic screening of possible source localities. Because it has not been widely used in archaeological contexts Dr. Wisseman has designed a project both to address a significant anthropological question and to test the feasibility of this approach. She will focus on stone figurines and effigy pipes from sites occupied in the US Midwest over the last 2,000 years. Associated with Middle Woodland and Mississippian cultures, these artifacts have been interpreted by archaeologists to indicate the existence of a long distance trade network which extended from the northern Midwest to the Gulf coast. Because most were used in ritual contexts a form of hierarchical social organization associated with religious/ritual control has been hypothesized. Source information which Dr. Wisseman will collect can serve to address this issue directly. Preliminary data suggest that much of the material is of relatively local rather than distant origin.This research is important for several reasons. It will assess the utility of new instrumentation which has high archaeological potential. It will also shed new light on the development of complex societies in the prehistoric United States.