Sustainable Archaeology: McMaster's Telecentric Microscope

Lena Zepf (pictured below) is a Masters student in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University. Using Sustainable Archaeology: McMaster's telecentric microscope, Lena is examining smoking pipes from sites in Ontario.

Investigating cultural transformation in south-central Ontario: 

an examination of smoking pipes

My MA thesis investigates how smoking pipes change through time, and if certain changes to style can provide insight into cultural transformation in the context of shifting settlement strategies. The purpose of this investigation is two-fold, and consists of a visual and an attribute analysis of a series of sites in the Credit River watershed in Mississauga, and surrounding area. What I am looking for is evidence of style preferences and/or local stylistic changes. Sites of interest include the Wallace and Antrex sites (located at the University of Toronto in Mississauga), as well as the River and Chappell Terrace sites (found at the Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives).

Sustainable Archaeology at McMaster Innovation Park has provided me with access to materials from some of the southern Ontario site collections as well access to a telecentric microscope, which has allowed me to observe ceramic tempers. Preliminary results, at this time, point towards site specific preferences in style, and in increase in pipe prevalence.

What Can We Learn About Ceramics?

Examining digital scans of archaeological artifacts can tell us how an object was made, what materials it was constructed from, how it was used, how it was broken or mended, or how it has changed over time. Digital scans can aid in identification of materials, or in plans for conservation. Through past blog posts and videos, we've demonstrated the capabilities of Sustainable Archaeology's MicroCT scanner for digital analysis and non-destructive studies of a range of archaeological materials. We've demonstrated the potential for examining pathologies (evidence of past injury or disease) in bone, and for revealing previously unknown aspects of artifacts - from what lies below the rust of a metal object, to what the interior of a historic pipe looks like. This week, we turn to ceramic material, and to what a digital scan of a ceramic object can reveal.