From Russia with Love: Ruth Tringham and the Early Days of Microwear

Summary

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: RUTH TRINGHAM AND THE EARLY DAYS OF MICROWEAR ANALYSIS

It was the early 1970’s and a time when the Cold War directed the geopolitical scene worldwide. It was also a time when a young British archaeologist brought to the USA a new approach to the study of material culture. Professor Ruth Tringham landed at Harvard in 1971 together with the technique of microscopic analysis of traces of use on chipped stone tools, a technique which she had studied in the USSR. There were other scholars pursuing this scientific approach to lithic study but Ruth clinched it, developing a solid program of experimentation, observation, documentation, and dissemination that is a cornerstone of subsequent advancements. This paper revisits those early years of microwear analysis at Harvard. The author was an undergraduate then and provides a firsthand look at a time of discovery, fun, and to some extent, revolution in archaeological research.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Lithics Cowgirl, Household Archaeologist, Digital Doyenne: A Session Dedicated to Ruth Tringham

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