Major Research Instrumentatin: Acquisition Of An ICP-MS For Archaeometric And Geological Research

Field Museum Of Natural History, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Laure Dussubieux, Patrick Ryan Williams and Philipp Heck from the Field Museum and Dr Marc Walton from the Northwestern University-Art institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies will replace the inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) that is the central piece of equipment of the Elemental Analysis Facility (EAF) at the Field Museum. The EAF is used mainly to determine the composition, including major, minor, and trace elements, of a large range of materials including obsidian, ceramic, clay, synthesized glass and metals from all around the world and natural terrestrial and extraterrestrial rocks. This new state-of-the-art instrumentation will be used to establish extensive new datasets of archaeological, cultural and geological materials that directly informs hypotheses about ancient trade and exchange, technology, and their relationship to the development of social complexity around the world and the origin and the evolution of Earth and the solar system. This new instrument will contribute to the research and training of undergraduate, graduate students and young researchers. They will be initiated into the analytical process using ICP-MS by undertaking the analysis itself and will be trained in method development, the statistical processing of the data, and interpretation. Results of the research at the EAF will inform future exhibits and education activities at the Field Museum, Art Institute and Oriental Institute, which educate hundreds of thousands of school children and millions of visitors annually. A new ICP-MS, will not only increase inter-disciplinary collaborations at the Field Museum but also stimulate collaborative efforts between the Field Museum and other Chicago-based institutions. Among those are the new Northwestern University-Art Institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies, the Oriental Institute (University of Chicago), and the Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry (C3), comprised of the three-institutions Field Museum, University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, to enhance training, scientific research and exchange in the fields of Anthropology, Cosmochemistry, Geochemistry, Materials Science and Engineering. The connection of the EAF with the Field Museum, The Art Institute and the Oriental Institute collections will be a unique opportunity to linking leading scholars and graduate students to those institutions, extensive collections and giving them the tools to analyze these one of a kind assemblages to significantly enhance understanding of the role of cultural production in the development of complex societies. The C3 enables their scientists to access the world-class collections of meteorites, terrestrial rocks and minerals from the Field Museum and analyze them using the specialized analytical tools at its institutions and at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University with whom we have established a close collaboration.