Continued development and application of 40Ar/39Ar dating for archaeometric research

40Ar/39Ar测年方法在考古学和古人类学背景下具有广泛的适用性，是一种高度准确和精确的测年工具，为人类和灵长类进化的研究做出了广泛的贡献。在国家科学基金会的支持下，调查人员将启动一项为期三年的工作，以维护、运营和升级位于加利福尼亚州伯克利的伯克利地质年代学中心(BGC)的40Ar/39Ar测年设施。这笔赠款支持的研究本质上是跨学科的，并促进了地质学、考古学和古人类学科学家之间更好的互动。此外，BGC制作的考古年代数据经常发表在备受瞩目的期刊上，由非专业新闻媒体报道，因此在报纸、杂志、广播、电视以及越来越多的网络上得到广泛的公众传播。最后，研究生和博士后研究员，其中许多人将在未来继续进行考古测量研究，将接受有关使用测年设施的直接培训，这些培训将代表下一代40Ar/39Ar地质年代学家。许多其他研究生和博士后研究员将获得考古数据，以直接支持他们的实地研究。该奖项支持计划中的设备维修和升级，以确保考古社区访问40Ar/39Ar测年实验室，在这项先进和强大的测年技术中运用可能的最佳实践，以达到尽可能高的精确度、准确度和吞吐量。计划中的设备和技术改进将在真空测试和气体提取系统的开发、计算机基础设施和软件开发方面进行。这笔资金还将帮助支持一名从事关键任务的实验室技术人员，如样品准备、辐射处理和质谱仪操作。最后，为PIS提供部分资金，让他们从实验室和现场与考古社区一起进行项目研究。这一奖励反映了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。

The 40Ar/39Ar dating method has broad applicability in archeological and paleoanthropological contexts, and is well established as a highly accurate and precise dating tool that has contributed widely to the study of hominin and primate evolution. With National Science Foundation support, the investigators will initiate a three-year effort to maintain, operate and upgrade the 40Ar/39Ar dating facilities at the Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC) in Berkeley, California. The research studies enabled by this grant are intrinsically interdisciplinary and foster improved interaction between geological, archaeological, and paleoanthropological scientists. In addition, the archaeometric age data produced by BGC are frequently published in high-profile journals that are covered by lay news media, hence receive broad public dissemination in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and increasingly, the web. Finally, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom will continue archaeometric research in the future, will receive direct training in the use of the dating facilities, poised to represent the next generation of 40Ar/39Ar geochronologists. Many other graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will receive archaeometric data in direct support of their field studies.This award supports planned equipment repairs and upgrades that will ensure access by the Archaeometric community to a 40Ar/39Ar dating laboratory exercising the best possible practices in this advanced and powerful dating technique, in order to attain the highest possible levels of precision, accuracy and throughput. The planned improvements to equipment and technique will be in the areas of vacuum testing and development of gas extraction systems, computer infrastructure and software development. This funding will also help support a laboratory technician who engages in critical tasks such as sample preparation, irradiation handling, and mass-spectrometer operation. Finally, partial funding is provided for the PIs to liason from the laboratory and in the field with the Archeaometric community in pursuit of project research.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.