MRI: Acquisition of Laser Ablation for ICP-MS and a Handheld XRF for the W.M. Keck Center for Instrumental and Biochemical Comparative Archaeology, Millsaps College

该合同允许Michael Galaty博士、乔治Bey博士和Timothy Ward博士为现有的Varian 820电感耦合等离子体质谱仪增加激光烧蚀功能，并购买可用于现场研究的手持式XRF光谱仪。这两种仪器将被安置在米尔萨普学院的W。M.凯克仪器和生物化学比较考古中心。该实验室的目标是支持教师和本科生的跨学科团队使用现代分析仪器解决复杂的考古问题。该团队目前研究的重点是利用生物化学和考古测量科学，通过在两个新旧世界文化体系中开发新的国家形成的历时模型，为比较考古学提供新的见解：阿尔巴尼亚的青铜时代伊利里亚人（公元前200年-公元0年）和墨西哥尤卡坦半岛的玛雅文化（公元前900年-公元250年）。由于这种新旧世界文化的系统和跨学科的比较尚未尝试，研究有可能产生重大贡献，了解复杂社会的发展。何时以及为什么“国家”在某些地方形成，而在另一些地方没有形成，在某些时候形成，而在另一些地方没有形成，这个问题具有广泛的科学意义。一种方法-这里采用的方法-是比较两个不同地区影响社会复杂性的因素，从而启发对两者的研究。除了已经掌握的工具之外，所要求的工具将提供一套宝贵的分析工具。例如，它将有可能确定一系列考古材料的基本化学成分的特征，如陶器、碎石块和金属，并确定痕量残留物。这将允许使用特定的文物被确定和他们的运动跟踪空间从源区域到考古遗址。这将使重建贸易和相关的经济体系成为可能，从而确定一系列社会因素，这些因素通常被认为与社会复杂性的上升有关。M.凯克中心在一所强调参与式“动手”学习的小型学院为完全本科生提供服务。它有可能将大量本科生引入跨学科领域和实验室研究的力量，实验室提供了进一步实现这一目标的后续工作。该仪器将提高研究和教育的有效性。

This award permits Drs. Michael Galaty, George Bey and Timothy Ward to add a laser ablation capability to an extant Varian 820 inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and to purchase a handheld XRF spectrometer which can be used in field research. Both instruments will be housed in Millsap College's W. M. Keck Center for Instrumental and Biochemical Comparative Archaeology. The goal of the laboratory is to support interdisciplinary teams of faculty and undergraduate students in addressing complex archaeological questions using modern analytical instrumentation. The focus of the team's current research is to use biochemical and archaeometric science to provide new insight into comparative archaeology by developing new diachronic models of state formation in two Old and New World cultural systems: the Bronze-Age Illyrians of Albania (200 BC - AD 0) and the Formative Mayan cultures of Yucatan, Mexico (900 BC - AD 250). Because a systematic and interdisciplinary comparison of such Old and New World cultures has not yet been attempted, the research has the potential to yield significant contributions to understanding the development of complex societies. The question of when and why "states" formed in some places but not others, at some times but not others, is of broad scientific interest. One approach - the one taken here - is to compare factors affecting social complexity in two different regions, thereby enlightening the study of both. The requested instrumentation, in addition to that already in hand will provide a set of valuable analytic tools. It will, for example, be possible to characterize the basic chemical composition of a range of archaeological material such as pottery, chipped and ground stone and metal and also to determine trace-residues. This will allow the use of specific artifacts to be determined and their movement traced over space from source area to archaeological site. This will make it possible to reconstruct trade and related economic systems and thus determine a range of social factors commonly believed to be implicated in the rise of social complexity.The W. M. Keck Center serves an entirely undergraduate population at a small college that emphasizes engaged, "hands-on" learning. It has the potential to introduce large numbers of undergraduate students to the power of interdisciplinary field and laboratory research and the laboratory offers followships to further this goal. The instrumentation will improve the effectiveness of both research and education.