High-Tech Archaeology

▪ 1999

      More and more, archaeologists are moving aside their trowels, shovels, paper maps, and other traditional gear to make room for computers, mass spectrometers, chemical sensors, and global positioning systems. A number of new, high-technology science applications are now being utilized by archaeologists, dramatically revolutionizing the way these scientists date and analyze the past.

      Radiocarbon (radioactive carbon-14) dating is well known for its use in establishing the antiquity of archaeological remains, including bone, shell, wood, and almost any other carbon-containing material of biological origin that formed in the past 40,000 years. A relatively new dating technique called accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating, however, is now helping investigators look farther into the past, perhaps as far back as 75,000 years ago, and with much greater accuracy. The high-energy mass spectrometers work by counting the number of carbon-14 atoms in even the smallest of samples, such as tiny charcoal specks or single wheat grains. In 1997 archaeologist Bruce Smith of the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., demonstrated the use of AMS dating on domesticated squash seeds discovered in a Mexican cave. The seeds were dated to 8,000-10,000 years ago, and scientists were forced to rethink their views on when and where plant domestication first occurred in the New World.

      In the past archaeologists relied heavily on the patterns of wear on teeth in order to make inferences about diet in prehistoric peoples. Today the isotopic analysis of ancient bone and hair is providing a much more complete picture of prehistoric diets. By analyzing the ratios of different carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone, researchers can identify the main types of foods that people ate in the past. The technique is so sensitive that investigators may one day be able to pinpoint the moment at which a human population changed from a wild-plant diet to domesticated grains. In 1998 scientists reported the results of an isotopic analysis on an 11,000-year-old female skeleton found near Buhl, Idaho. They discovered that although the young woman had eaten a mostly meat-based diet, she also relied on a variety of fish and shellfish. This finding meshed well with other 1998 discoveries in Peru that suggested that the diet of early Americans was much more varied than previously thought.

      Archaeologists are also using geochemical trace-element analysis on stone tools, metals, obsidian (volcanic glass), and other materials in order to learn more about the economics of past civilizations and to make inferences about prehistoric trade. For example, ancient South American hunters preferred to use obsidian for their knives and arrow points because of its predictable fracturing characteristics and sharp working edge. In 1997 researchers using spectrometers and other chemical analytic techniques discovered one of the primary sources of obsidian used by South American hunters. According to the scientists, the obsidian most likely originated from a quarry on the slopes of the Cotallalli volcano in the south-central Andes and was widely traded throughout Central and South America for a period of at least 4,500 years.

BRIAN FAGAN

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