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E-book Obsidian Across the Americas : Compositional Studies Conducted in the Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum of Natural History
For the past two decades, the Field Museum of Natural History has been a leader in the analysis, conservation, and preservation of archaeological and museum collections. There are an immeasurable number of researchers who have walked the museum’s halls, collaborated with museum scientists and curators, and advanced our understanding of the past and helped preserve the future through a diversity of research projects. However, of particular note are those researchers and projects that have relied on the Elemental Analysis Facility (EAF) at the Field Museum. Beginning as a casual lunch conversation between Drs. Laure Dussubieux and Heather Walder about the growing number of unpublished EAF research, the discussion has resulted in the compilation of these analytical projects in the form of two volumes, with one more in the pipeline. The first volume, edited by Dussubieux and Walder (2022), focuses on the analysis of glass bead artifacts using the laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) laboratory at the EAF. This innovative volume included archaeological beads from around the world, and their analysis helped researchers reconstruct various chronological developments and human interactions. To build collaborative efforts, Dussubieux and Walder hosted a three-day workshop that allowed scholars to present their laboratory results, receive feedback from their colleagues, and incorporate the feedback into their final manuscripts. In a similar vein, the second volume, edited by Feinman and Riebe (this volume), started with a similar workshop on October 8, 2021, in which all authors presented their research in a “lightning-round” format and received feedback from the other participants and the editors. On February 4–5, 2022, a third workshop was held for the authors of the last publication that will focus on Andean ceramics and will be edited by Drs. Ryan Patrick Williams, M. Elizabeth Grávalos, and Luis Muro Ynoñán. Where the current volume differs from these other EAF compilations, however, are the materials studied and the analytical methods used. Obsidian, its origins, circulation, and use, are the focus of this volume, with most of the analyses conducted using the portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) devices in the EAF. The origins of the EAF date to the early 2000’s with Dr. Patrick Ryan Williams as the director. In 2005, the EAF became more firmly established as a leading analytical facility with the hire of research scientist and manager, Dr. Laure Dussubieux. Working together, Williams and Dussubieux have built the EAF labs – including the pXRF Lab, LA-ICP-MS Lab, and Optical Mineralogy Lab – through a series of granting initiatives from both internal sources (Negaunee Fund, Grainger Scientific Fund, Anthropology Alliance, Women’s Board) and external sources (National Science Foundation: BCS 0818401, BCS 1321731, BCS 1531394, BCS 0320903, BCS 1628026, BCS 2016729; BCS1649742). The growth of these laboratories and the investment in instrumentation has attracted researchers from all over the world, but it also has played a pivotal role in training and educating future scientists. The Field Museum and its curators and research scientists have close ties with the universities in the Chicago-land area, including Northwestern, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and this uniquely positions interested students at these universities to learn about the different analytical techniques available in the EAF and to develop projects using these instruments and the collections at the Field Museum. Beyond training and working one-on-one with interested students, Williams and Dussubieux also developed and co-instruct a course, Analytical Archaeology (ANTH 494, UIC), that focuses on archaeometry and requires students to come up with a semester project utilizing one specific analytical technique.
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