A Material World: Collaborative Research in Art, Archaeology, and Materials Science in the Study of the Ancient Americas

This session features collaborative research in art, archaeology, and materials science in the study of the ancient Americas. Collaboration between scientists and social scientists or humanists has long been a part of archaeological studies, yet recent decades have seen a flourishing in productive collaborations between archaeologists and art historians with materials and conservation scientists. This panel explores new directions in such inter-disciplinary collaboration, particularly regarding how new scientific analyses can help us understand ancient technologies, artists’ decisions in the choice of materials or modes of manufacture, and the meaning of materials to artists and users. In some cases, materials science reveals information that can confirm or refute what is suggested from stylistic or other analysis, particularly regarding sharing of materials and technologies across cultures. In others, new technologies of excavation, preservation, and analysis give insight into the use of organic materials, which allow us both to see a wider range of materials used by artists and to help recreate the ancient sensorial world and ask new questions about the experience of artists and users in the ancient past of the Americas.