Guest blog: New ways archaeologists ‘dig out’ answers

By: Victoria Nagy, MSc

After spending a field season conducting consultant archaeological field work in Ontario, I wanted to work in a research facility, an environment I enjoyed during my Masters studies. Therefore, I was excited to join the staff at Sustainable Archaeology: Western University. During my past undergraduate and graduate studies I had been exposed to digital archaeology and database development but I had never been able to directly apply those skills.

I was fascinated by the shear potential for research at Sustainable Archaeology since I was first introduced to the facility back in October 2015. As an archaeologist with a background in scientific applications, I was especially interested in its scope and equipment. Research facilities such as Sustainable Archaeology are extremely rare in Canadian archaeology, its existence and continuing innovation fill a scientific void in Ontario archaeology. Sustainable Archaeology: Western University and Sustainable Archaeology: McMaster University showcase how Ontario values archaeological research and will focus on scientific applications to further understand Ontario’s rich heritage.

Hilary Kiazyk, a part-time employee at SA: Western, using the Artec Spider to scan a mammoth tooth (a part of a collection from the Museum of Ontario Archaeology) (Feb. 29, 2016).

My first week at SA I familiarised myself with two of our 3D scanning technologies: the white light scanner and the mobile Artec Spider scanner (blue light scanner). I created a 3D model of a projectile point using the Artec Spider and tried my hand at using a white light scanner with a Historic smoking pipe. The Artec Spider blue light scanner proved to be my favourite piece of equipment in the imaging lab. The speed at which it captured images greatly shorted the imaging process. Also, the editing functions were easier to use and more comprehensive. I definitely enjoyed forming an opinion about these incredible pieces of equipment.

I was also able to print a previously rendered 3D model to better understand the 3D printing process. I learned how key texture editing is to the printing process. Since SA’s 3D printer is a powder printer that applies texture (colour in layman’s terms) during the printing process, editing the texture before printing to obtain the most lifelike texture (and then ensuring the texture seen on a computer monitor is adjusted to reflect the real texture) is essential to creating a lifelike replica. Through their work with 3D printing, SA is creating a new collection of archaeological mimics that can be used for display, study or function.

The applications of 3D scanning and printing are endless. Two replicas of the famed Ötzi were recently produced at Materialise in Leuven, Belgium as a dual effort by the DNA Learning Center and the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. The team who replicated Ötzi via 3D printing used a CT scanner to generate the 3D model of Ötzi, much like the Micro CT scanner SA owns and operates. The Micro CT scanner at SA is primarily used to understand the internal structures of artifacts. Internal structures can convey to archaeologists how artifacts were made, what materials were used, and reveal any unseen processes. Using a Micro CT scanner would have brought another dimension to my past research studying the newly introduced rehydroxylation (RHX) dating technique. I was only able to conduct Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), which analyses materials’ response to intense heat (Nagy 2015). Access to a Micro CT scanner would have provided me with a much more accurate examination of the internal construction of my samples. The fact that this equipment is available to Western students, and other researchers is so important for future research in Ontario and the wider academic community.

Staff of Materialise and Gary Staab (the expert paleoartist behind the Ötzi replicas - second from the left) (Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory 2016).

As my time at Sustainable Archaeology continues I am constantly amazed at this facility and the potential it represents for the archaeological community in Ontario. The non-destructive analysis conducted here is necessary for the archaeological research of the future. Sustainable Archaeology is providing the next generation of archaeologists with the tools they need to conduct high caliber research. Sustainable Archaeology has facilitated new processes for archaeologists to ‘dig out’ conclusions. I look forward to my time here and the research in the immediate future that results directly from Sustainable Archaeology’s efforts.


References

Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory (2016). The making of Otzi the Iceman. https://www.dnalc.org/programs/otzi.html?utm_source=ALL+CUSTOMERS&utm_campaign=9ea4241666-MED_Otzi&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7544445bcb-9ea4241666-63081529&goal=0_7544445bcb-9ea4241666-63081529.

Nagy, V. 2015. A methodological study of a simplified rehydroxylation dating procedure (Unpublished Master’s thesis). Durham University, Durham, UK.


Author biography

Victoria Nagy is a new addition to Sustainable Archaeology: Western University. Victoria graduated in 2015 with Distinction from Durham University with a Master of Science in Archaeological Science. In 2013, she graduated with Distinction from Wilfrid Laurier University with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Near Eastern and Classical Archaeology. Victoria has conducted archaeological field work in Jordan, the United Kingdom, as well as northern and southern Ontario. She has joined Sustainable Archaeology as a Data Entry Assistant to aid existing staff with database development. This week is her fourth week with SA: Western.

Guest Blog by Professor Andrew Nelson: On the Road with SA in the UK (Part 3, final installment)

Interested in how research projects and collaborations are established and executed? This is the final blog post in our series of three that has followed SA Research Associate Professor Andrew Nelson on a recent trip to the UK. Read Part 1 of the series here, and Part 2 here.

July 11^th – Andrew took the opportunity to visit the Nikon Metrology Centre-of-Excellence in Tring. Tring is about 40 minutes by train north of London. This is where the microCT scanners - including our own! - are assembled, and where Nikon offers inspection services using their line of scanners. Andrew Ramsey, a CT Specialist at Nikon, showed Andrew N. around, and patiently tolerated a barrage of questions about the inner workings of the CT Pro reconstruction software.  Andrew R. was part of the team that scanned the amazing 'mechanism' from the Antikythera shipwreck - and has lots of experience scanning interesting things!  

CT scanners being assembled at Nikon Metrology in Tring, England.

 July 12^th – Andrew visited the incredible block-buster exhibit at the British Museum entitled “Ancient lives:new discoveries”, featuring 8 Egyptian mummies [Andrew being a mummy expert himself - Ed.].  The exhibit features CT scans and detailed examinations of each individual, highlighting the story of their lives and how they were treated in death. Many of the exhibits included the ability for the visitor to interact with the scans – either rotating the views, cutting through the mummy or otherwise highlighting specific features. In many ways the exhibit was quite simple, but the visitors were enthralled.  This might be an interesting way to exhibit the scans of the prayer beads at the AGO!

July 14^th – Scan day.  Andrew linked up with Annie Kemkaran-Smith, to scan two objects from the Wernher Collection at Ranger’s House Museum in Greenwich. Annie is the Curator (Art Collections) of the National Collections Group with English Heritage, London. As such, she is the collections curator for Down House (Darwin’s home), Eltham Palace and Ranger’s House.

The objects were a small prayer bead and a miniature boxwood coffin – a memento mori (see an example of a very similar coffin at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, here).  The scans are pretty amazing – particularly the coffin!  It will take a lot of work with the analytical software to segment it into separate elements. We will demonstrate this work in a future blog post.

That was it for the bead and CT related work on this trip.  It was a pretty eventful few days!  We’ve got some more scanning planned at home in London, Ontario and the triptych with the Detroit Institute of the Arts to do – so lots more to come. Watch this space!

Thanks, Andrew, for sharing your adventures with us. It's been interesting to see where our microCT scanner was built, and the sorts of work researchers in the UK are doing with similar equipment. We are certain the trip has inspired research for both you and future students in the Anthropology Department at Western. We look forward to seeing your research and collaborations blossom here at SA: Western, and we're thrilled to be a part of this story!

Guest Blog by Professor Andrew Nelson: On the Road with SA in the UK (Part 2)

Interested in how research projects and collaborations are established and executed? This blog post continues the adventures of  SA Research Associate Professor Andrew Nelson, as he gives us a  behind-the-scenes look at his new collaborative project with the Art Gallery of Ontario. Read Part 1 of the series here.

July 8^th – Lisa Ellis, Sasha Suda (both of the AGO) and myself (Western University) visit the Natural History Museum in London, England to see their microCT scanning facility.  They have a Nikon XT225 just like the one at SA: Western – perfect for this project, as the unit and the software here will be the same that I use at home, ensuring comparability of the scans.  Lisa and Andrew, along with Andrew’s long time radiography colleague, Jerry Conlogue, met up at the NHM.  

Prof. Jerry Conlogue stands in front of a showcase of some of the projects produced by the IAC lab at the NHM.

There we were met by Dan Sykes, Assistant Micro-CT Lab Manager and Micro-CT Specialist at the Imaging and Analysis Centre (IAC). This is an amazing operation – a lab full of humming computers with folks creating amazing images on their computer screens – everything from bee brains to meteorites to bones. 

The Imaging and Analysis Centre at the Natural History Museum, London.

Andrew returned here later in July to scan two pieces from the Wernher Collection at Ranger’s House museum in Greenwich (see 3rd blog installment).  One piece is a prayer bead, and the other is a small boxwood coffin that is carved in a similar manner as the beads.  That should be fascinating… stay tuned.

July 9^th – Lisa and Sasha head back to Canada.  There’s nothing going on that’s relevant to the bead project – but Andrew did visit the Hunterian Museum.  This is an amazing collection of anatomical specimens – both human and animal, as well as the skeleton of Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant.  Fascinating stuff – lots here that could be microCT scanned! (Byrne’s skull has been scanned at the Natural History Museum).

 

Next time, Andrew visits the Nikon Metrology Centre-of-Excellence in Tring - where our microCT scanner was born - stay tuned to Part 3 of our blog series.