EAPSI: Creating a Geographic Information Systems Database for the Otago Museum

Robles Herman N, Baton Rouge LA

Investigators

Abstract

The Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand currently houses a collection of obsidian artifacts that were once in the possession of ancestral South Island Maori. Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass found in many countries around the world that was fractured and used for blades, arrowheads, and ornamental purposes by the ancestral Maori. Although the stone artifacts are known to have been collected mostly in the South Island of the New Zealand archipelago, there is not much information as to where the ancestors of South Island Maori originally obtained the raw material to create the stone artifacts. Using x-ray florescence (XRF) analysis to geochemically characterize the obsidian, a pilot study will be performed on the collection of stone artifacts to provide a source location of each object based on their geochemical signature. In collaboration with Dr. Mark McCoy at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, this study will explore how spatial technology can be used to make these collections more useful and accessible for research on ancient trade and exchange to public education. XRF will be used to non-destructively source the obsidian artifacts by way of geochemistry to create a spatially referenced Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database that will bring together all current knowledge of where each piece was discovered. The GIS database will include +1,300 accessions that have been donated to the museum by collectors and early archaeological excavations. The GIS database will also provide a spatial reference to each artifacts respective region while providing accessibility to the data for the general public and descendant Maori populations for use in public education and research. This database is the type of summary information that would come out of a modern archaeological excavation. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Royal Society of New Zealand.