Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Since 2004, the Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum has conducted advanced research projects in archaeological chemistry to study research on trade and exchange, examine craft production, and assess the nature of archaeological materials. Housed in one of the world’s great natural history museums, the labs promote research on museum collections but also on objects from collaborating institutions and researchers. Applications from techniques including laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry and portable X-ray fluorescence have been instrumental in this work. Collaborative projects have ranged from explorations of glass bead production and exchange to sourcing earthenware ceramics and the development of portable laser ablation systems. Dozens of publications and large databases have been built, the latter of which provide for large-scale comparative analysis of exchange systems on continental scales. The posters presented in this session fulfill the spirit of the EAF showcasing the results of some of its recent projects.

Other Keywords
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis • Craft Production • Trade and exchange • Historic • Communities of Practice • Andes: Late Intermediate • Material Culture and Technology • Highland Mesoamerica: Postclassic • Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: Glass Analysis • Ceramics

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • United States of America (Country) • United Mexican States (Country) • Republic of Peru (Country) • Republic of Turkey (Country) • Republic of Panama (Country) • Republic of Colombia (Country) • Netherlands Antilles (Country) • Aruba (Country) • Republic of Ecuador (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Ceramic Paste Technologies at Cerro San Isidro, Nepeña Valley, Peru (ca. 500 BCE–1470 CE) (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only M. Elizabeth Grávalos. David Chicoine.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Here we present the preliminary results of geochemical and petrographic analysis of ceramics from the site of Cerro San Isidro, located in the Nepeña Valley of Ancash, Peru. Cerro San Isidro was the principal urban settlement within the Moro Pocket of the Nepeña Valley throughout its history, which...

  • Exploring Production and Exchange of Post-Tiwanaku Cabuza-Style Ceramics (Southern Peru, Twelfth Century CE) through Visual and LA-ICP-MS Analysis (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Arturo Rivera I.. Sarah Baitzel. Laure Dussubieux. Nicola Sharratt.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The dispersal of Tiwanaku-affiliated populations before and after the collapse of the eponymous state took on distinct cultural expressions throughout the western south-central Andean valleys. The proliferation of diverse Tiwanaku-derived ceramic substyles in the region signaled the emergence of...

  • Fifty Shades of Gray . . . Obsidian: A Tale of Supply, Demand, and the Ties that Bind at Xaltocan, Mexico (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only John K. Millhauser. Kristin De Lucia. Enrique Rodríguez-Alegría.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In central Mexico, where obsidian was the primary tool stone used by Indigenous peoples, one can get a good sense of sources by separating green obsidian (from Pachuca) from gray obsidian (from Otumba, Ucareo, and several other sources). Compositional analysis can further clarify the gray sources....

  • From Jalisco, Mexico, to Quimistán, Honduras: Analyzing Mesoamerican Metals from the Field Museum (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Maria Isabel Guevara-Duque. Laure Dussubieux. Gary Feinman.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Copper artifacts were prominent in Mesoamerica during the last precolonial millennium, more widely distributed than silver and gold. Mesoamerican copper was formed into axes, axe-monies, rings, pendants, bells, and needles, among other artifacts. The most used alloy in this region was...

  • The Glass Beads of San Vito de Valdobbiadene: Compositional Analysis of Glass Beads from a Sixteenth-Century CE Italian Factory (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elliot Blair. Dennis Blanton. Laure Dussubieux.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite being the center of European glass bead production during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries CE, very few elemental analyses have ever been conducted on glass beads recovered from known production sites in Murano/Venice. Here we present LA-ICP-MS data on sixteenth-century Nueva Cadiz...

  • Glass Windows and Vessels from Bir el Knissia, an Early Byzantine Church in Carthage (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Allison Sterrett-Krause. Laure Dussubieux.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations at the site Bir el Knissia in Carthage from 1990 to 1992 recovered large glass assemblages from the site of an early Byzantine cemetery basilica, constructed by the mid-sixth century CE and destroyed by fire in the mid-seventh century. These artifacts include vessels (especially lamps,...

  • Investigating Geological Sources and Sociotechnical Dimensions of Mica Pottery Inclusions from Late Bronze Age (LBA, 1500–1100 BC) Fortresses in Northern Armenia (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ian Lindsay. Khachatur Meliksetian. Hripsime Gevorgyan. Laure Dussubieux. Erik Otárola-Castillo.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For 25 years, the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies project (Project ArAGATS) has focused on the origins, regional-scale organization, and sociopolitical dynamics among LBA hillforts in northern Armenia. This paper presents preliminary results from a pilot study of mica...

  • Isotope and Elemental Analyses Using Portable Laser Ablation at the Elemental Analysis Facility: A Progress Report (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laure Dussubieux. Jean Milot. Virginie Renson. Spencer Seman.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of archaeological artifacts often needs to be undertaken with no or very limited damage to the objects. It is with this constraint in mind that the Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum was established. The choice of laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry...

  • No Source, No Problem: Evaluating Connectedness from Geochemical Analysis of Pottery with a New Python Tool (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mikhail Echavarri. Emily Peterson. Joss Whittaker. Peter Lape.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Compositional analysis techniques, such as laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in combination with petrographic analysis, have been used to generate high resolution comparison of clay sources, pottery, and pottery manufacture sites. Studies that utilize these...

  • Sourcing Surface Treatments on Whiteware Ceramics from Southeast Utah Great House Communities (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kaitlyn Davis. Jeffrey Ferguson. Laure Dussubieux.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous elemental research on ceramics from Chacoan Great Houses in southeast Utah produced unexpected results. Whereas painted whiteware serving bowls are traditionally thought more likely to be traded or procured from further away than grayware cooking pots, neutron activation analysis (NAA) of...

  • Tracking Population Movement and Interaction in Southern Appalachia: Elemental Analysis of Early Mississippian Pottery from Etowah (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew LoBiondo. Emily Kracht.

    This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Migration, pilgrimage, and other forms of movement and culture contact have long been recognized as important forces of social change. Social interaction among culturally diverse groups has been demonstrated archaeologically as an important causal factor in Mississippian origins throughout the US...