We all convened on Saturday morning having braved another winter storm, but fortified by the pre-conference breakfast goodies. Doug Perrelli, the conference organizer, welcomed everyone. Ezra Zubrow (SUNY Buffalo) reported that of some 10,000 archaeologically oriented articles in the major international media, only 50 mentioned archaeometry or archaeometric methods, interestingly, none of those carried by the wire services. Major radio/TV networks reported no archaeometry news, but did carry about 60 archaeological items. Generally, one archaeometric item is reported for every 200 to 2000 archaeology items. Discussion centred around why this might be so. Several people noted that most archaeological stories depended on archaeometric data, but that it was often not reported to or by the press. Several people noted that their experience with the press had led to numerous misreported stories or frustration in giving a detailed interview which was then quashed by a senior editor. The newsworthiness of the archaeometric data was questioned by several who thought that the general public would not understand much archaeometry due to their poor mathematical and scientific literacy. (The reading public is assumed to have a Grade 6 average reading ability.) Some archaeometrists noted that even the average archaeologist does not always understand the archaeometric methods completely. Zubrow suggested that, because archaeometrical research lacked an underlying theory, archaeologists did not consider it to be areal archaeology. The measurement studies are often not rewarded well by institutions or considered interesting to anyone, while the departments that house the equipment often accuse the archaeometrists of wasting their time doing "that archaeology stuff rather than real science." People continued to discuss these ideas throughout the conference.
Hilary Stewart-Williams (McMaster University) reported on his recently developed, improved method to analyze lo in the phosphate fraction of tooth enamel using an Ag3P04 precipitation rather than (BiPO4)2-EI2O. Tests on beaver teeth showed consistent lo results for different teeth from a male and female beaver killed at the same time. For human teeth from Teotihuacan, Mexico, lo data suggest some of the population may have been immigrants. Discussion centred on other possibilities to explain the Mexican results, including dietary differences among the social classes and slavery.
Jack Rink (McMaster University) discussed the recent improvements in electron spin resonance (ESR) dating. At Karain, Turkey, he found the excessive calcite rooffall debris (sedimentary "lumpiness) caused the range in the dates for the lumpy layers to appear less consistent. At Kulna, the Czech Republic, the Micoquian industry dates to 60-65 : 10 ka assuming early or linear U uptake (EU or LU). At El Castillo, Spain, the basal Aurignacian layers dated to 30-34 : 3 ka (assuming EU or LU). In the discussion, the problems of water content and U uptake and their effects on external dose rate calculations were explained further.
Using ESR dated teeth from Sterkfontein and Swartkrans, South Africa, Bonnie Blackwell (Windsor University) showed that extraneous teeth have drastically different accumulated ESR doses and U concentrations from the in situ teeth. Calculating their dates requires their dose rates be corrected with a time-averaged dose rate calculation. At Swartkrans, both Members 3 and 5 contain teeth reworked from older units in the cave, while the Sterkfontein teeth suggest several sets of extraneous teeth in Member 4. Discussion clarified that this was not a different way to deal with the poor date resolution ("lumpiness") presented by Rink, but a way to date the extraneous teeth that occasionally get reworked in karst, glacial, or fluvial settings.
Henry Chaya (SUNY Albany) supervised a senior project for physics students who used XRF to analyze the trace elements in obsidian artefacts from sites excavated by Lucy Johnson (Vassar College) on the Aleutian Islands. Using several statistical tests, they determined that all the obsidian did derive from the same source. Future research will attempt to locate this source. More such projects could be attempted with real samples in undergraduate courses.
Having analyzed obsidian and chert artefacts from several Great Lakes Paleoindian sites with NAA for trace elements Pat Julig (Laurentian University) found that Hudson Bay Lowland Chert was a catchall term, as is the Knife River Flint for which it is often mistaken. Gunflint chert represented several different chemistries depending on the layer from which it was collected. Julig noted that all these sources can contribute to exotic artefacts found at most Paleoindian sites around the lakes. In examining Clovis obsidians from the Hoyt site, Ken Tankersley (SUNY Brockport) found an odd feature on the hafted portion of an obsidian point. Using SEM and different chemical analyses, he determined that the material was either amber or tree gum mixed with a carbon flux from burned wood. Using amber as a mastic would explain the frequent amber discoveries in Paleoindian sites, including the Lindenmeier site.
After examining buckets of glass trade beads", Ron Hancock (University of Toronto) found that Na, K, Al, Ca, Co, Cu, V, Mg, As, and Sb were useful elements to distinguish 16th from 17th and 18th Century blue beads. When the process to produce Na2C03 was perfected about 1870, bead producers no longer needed to use NaCI to make the soda glass, causing a change in the Cl content. Hancock hopes to examine more trade beads from museum collections to perfect this seriation. He noted that single beads can be analyzed and later returned to collections unharmed.
Saturday evening brought welcome relief in the form of a great buffet, including the requisite Buffalo style wings and other goodies, and liquid libation for all the participants. In the informal museum setting, everyone had ample time to discuss the day's topics and delve further into research projects in progress. Discussion lasted well into the late evening, the Olympics notwithstanding.
Sunday morning saw everyone back again for more science after a great breakfast buffet. Using NAA, XRD, and petrology on Roman Period (4th century BCE to 4th c. CE) Etrurian pottery, Ted Peiia (SUNY Albany) determined that most workshops turned out several pot styles, using mainly Pleistocene marine clays. In the extreme north, however, two workshops carefully guarded their production secrets until as recently as 1950. Over the centuries, these towns have produced specialized pots from local clay sources less than 1 km away. These clays contain significant volcanic sediment that acts as a natural temper, but also Pena also feels it constrains the shape and style due to its shrinkage and heat conductivity.
Chris Pool (Ithaca College) used 22 elements in XRF analysis of Classical Period (450 - 650 CE) ceramics at Matacapan, Mexico. Cluster and principle component analysis showed that as production becomes standardized into small afactories", the chemistry becomes more uniform.
For examining Classic Period ceramics from Alta Vista, Mexico, Nicola Stazi (SUNY Buffalo) also examined 22 elements by XRF. As Teotihuacan declined at 750 - 850 CE, this culture flourished with the expansion of mining to exploit malachite, ochre, and tourquoise, temple and monument construction. Certain wares were being produced only at specialized sites by about 750 CE.
After reviewing basic paleo-diet research principles using stable isotopes, Henry Schwarz (McMaster University) updated the group on his recent results. Following the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in coastal Portugual, Neolithic peoples had a much more restricted diet that contained almost exclusively terrestrial sources, whereas the Mesolithic people had also exploited marine resources. Residues on ceramics from sites in northern Manitoba indicate that the flat plates were probably used to fry fish and other foods. At Wadi Halfa, Nubia, the skeletal isotope ratios suggest little change in the food from the Christian to the Meroitic Periods ( 100 - 1600 CE), except that males in the Meroitic and X Group cultures ate more meat than females. A strong trophic level shift in ClsN ratios in children about 5-7 years old suggests that weaning occurred then. Isotopes in their hair suggests that more people died in the early summer and that their summer diet was almost exclusively millet and sourgham, while their winter diet was almost all wheat. We do know, however, that they did store food, which should have averaged the isotope ratios more over the year. More research is needed into hair growth rates and possible fractionation.
Marie Conrad (SUNY Buffalo) introduced us to the horrors of poor house life in mid-19th century New York State. Historic accounts give conflicting reports on the nutritional state of inmates, ranging from a well fed" to a suffering 1000 different diseases ... [an called] starvation". In order to examine the nutritional state preserved in the Highland Park skeletal collection, she will examine paleopathologies, stable isotope chemistry, and some trace element chemistry.
Ezra Zubrow thanked all the speakers for attending and presenting their research, and the sponsors, including the Canada/America Trade Centre and SUNY, who currently cover the speakers' hotels and the food costs. Zubrow also invited all the speakers to contribute their papers to a new fully electronic journal, Journal of World Anthropology, being edited at SUNY Buffalo. The con- conference program will also appear in this journal, which currently is free by requesting it from zubrow@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu. Further information is available over email or by writing Prof. Ezra Zubrow, Dept. of Anthropology, SUNY Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14222.
As always, SUNY Buffalo hosted a great meeting, with plentiful, interesting science, useful discussion, and good food. The only complaints heard by the attendees concerned the fact the third session occurred during the gold medal Olympic hockey game, and that some beer seemed to have a-3!,0 15N signature. The organizing committee, especially Doug Perrelli, deserve congratulations for a smooth conference. The organizers are always looking for new topics to include. If you or your colleagues is involved in archaeometric research, please contact Ezra Zubrow about presenting a talk. SUNY welcomes all interested attendees.