and it is a film
Mar. 28th, 2023 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaMostly, sorta...
I have survived the ordeal of learning enough basic video editing to complete a full draft of the video. It isn't perfect, but it may have to be good enough, depending on what changes, if any, I decide want to make, and weather or not they are possible for me to achieve using the file that already exists (as there isn't time to start over from a blank project). You can see the video here
https://youtu.be/QBggT4eOrPk
(this is the edited link, of the final version of the film, which is slightly different (better transitions) from what I posted a couple of days ago)
The documents that I turned in accompany the video for my application are:
Thesis Summary (500 words max)
My thesis twines together several main threads, the combined strength of which improves our understanding of cultural heritage and the history of an important resource. I am using analytical science to develop a whole new approach for steatite provenancing, I am cataloguing archaeological assemblages to better understand the Swedish steatite material culture record, and partaking in experimental archaeology to learn to carve and use my own steatite vessels.
Steatite, commonly known as soapstone, is a rock type that our ancestors have used for countless generations because it is softer, more easily carved, and retains heat better than any other stone, making it a perfect choice for cooking pots, forge stones, and many other everyday objects. During the Viking Age, steatite cooking vessels were used throughout Scandinavia and beyond, including places like Iceland, which have no soapstone quarries.
The ubiquitous use of steatite during the Viking age, both in Scandinavia and their colonies, makes this material well suited for archaeological studies interested in understanding exchange patterns between communities as well as ways in which even every-day household objects can reveal relative levels of status/wealth between individuals, farmsteads, and settlements.
However, while researchers have tested a variety of different approaches in their attempts to relate steatite geochemistry of artefacts to that of potential source quarries, they agree that the biggest challenge they face is that soapstone is a very heterogeneous rock type, which means that analyses of “whole rock” composition can yield very different results from a single outcrop. However, while the overall proportion of minerals changes across the quarry, the accessory minerals which can be present and the pattern of their compositions, are dependent upon the conditions (temperature, pressure, etc.) at which the rocks of that quarry formed.
Therefore, this study is the first to apply techniques for understanding the growth history of specific accessory minerals (originally developed for prospecting for new ore deposits) to define differences in steatite quarries that facilitates archaeological provenancing. Laser-Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is an approach which permits the production of detailed trace-element maps of minerals to reveal changes in composition across individual crystals that arose as a result of changes in their growing conditions. An understanding of the pattern of compositional changes within a single crystal, and how that compares with the composition of crystals of the same mineral from other locations, as well as how those changes relate to differences between the conditions under which the minerals at each location grew, is a key to “fingerprinting” the various locations.
My thesis database highlights such patterns of compositional change in a variety of accessory minerals which appear in steatite from 17 different locations in Sweden and Norway, and compares the difference in accessory mineral assemblages from different quarries. Such an approach can not only be applied to steatite artefacts from other locations, but even to other rock types, which unlocks a whole new way to trace stone artefacts back to their original source to inform interactions and trade network patterns.
______________________________________________
General Interest Pitch (750 words)
As an archaeologist, I am fascinated with the material culture of our ancestors. The every-day objects they left behind, and what these items can tell us of how they lived their lives, and of the networks that connected them to people in other areas. As a geologist, I have a special love for stone artefacts, especially for those made of steatite, commonly known as soapstone.
Steatite is a rock type that our ancestors have used for countless generations because it is softer, more easily carved, and retains heat better than any other stone. This makes it a perfect choice for cooking pots, forge stones, and many other everyday objects. During the Viking Age, steatite cooking pots were used throughout Scandinavia and beyond, including places like Iceland, which has no soapstone quarries. These pots were so popular and wide-spread that they lend themselves well to studies aiming to understand the trading networks that brought the stone pots from their quarries of origin to where they were used.
Unfortunately, steatite is not as easy to match to its source quarries as other rock types. This is because it forms from the alteration of older rocks by hot water flowing through cracks in the rock, which causes new minerals to grow and replace the old ones. This process often leads to quarries that look like patch-work quilts, with different concentrations of minerals in different parts of the quarry. Therefore, if you crush two random stones from the same quarry and analyse them to see what elements they are made from, you can get two very different results.
This is where my background as a geologist comes in. I understand that in every rock there exists both the major minerals—the crystals that make up the bulk of the stone, and the accessory minerals—tiny crystals that make up less than 20% of the total. It is those accessory minerals that interest me, because they can tell a story of the specific temperature and pressure at which the rock formed.
All minerals are built up from chemical elements, and each mineral type has its own crystal structure, with each element occupying specific places in the framework. However, most minerals also have a variety of optional elements that can replace some of its normal ones, and yet still be considered the same mineral. Just as a chocolate chip cookie is still a chocolate chip cookie even if it also contains nuts, or raisins or butterscotch chips.
With cookies, the baker chooses which extra ingredients to use each time, but with minerals it their growing conditions (such as temperature and pressure) that controls which, and how many extra elements wind up with places in its crystal structure. If, during the time a crystal grows, the conditions change, then the balance of those extra minerals will also change, making it possible for us to later read those changes.
The tool I use to be able to read these changes is called a “LA-ICP-MS”. “LA” stands for Laser-Ablation, which means using a laser to remove a little bit of the surface of a mineral, which gets sent through the “ICP”, or Inductively Coupled Plasma, which is made by heating argon gas. The plasma is so hot that the tiny mineral fragments are ionised, which makes it possible for the Mass Spectrometer (MS) to identify which elements (specifically isotopes) are present in the mineral (and how much of each).
The laser I use is so focused that it can remove a thin circle of mineral fragments only 10 µm (or 0.01 mm) wide, each time it fires. By firing the laser repeatedly, in rows across the surface of a rock, I send a steady stream of mineral fragments to be analysed, and the results are transformed into maps. The map colours show the changes in the amount of each element across the sample, and the combined patterns can be read like a fingerprint. Each quarry has a unique set of formation conditions (the temperature, pressure, starting rock type, and the composition of the hot fluid that flowed through it, triggering the growth of the new minerals). Together, these conditions control the compositional patterns of the accessory minerals. Thus, each quarry has a unique pattern.
I am creating a database of my results, which we can compare with analyses of steatite artefacts, in order to match the artefacts with their source quarries, thus providing critical evidence towards our understanding of the interactions and trade networks of the Viking Age.
__________________________________________
and a 2 page CV
While the deadline to apply isn't till the first week of April, I will be traveling from late Wednesday evening (trip planned long before I saw this opportunity),so I would prefer to submit the application before I leave, so that I don't have to try to find a good internet connection, somewhere, on the deadline. Therefore, if you see this before Wednesday afternoon, and you have a suggestion for improvement of my application that you wish to share, feel free to do so. If I agree, and it is doable in the time available, I will happily do so. edited to add: therefore, I submitted the above on Wednesday morning, and edited this to show the submitted version. Any remaining problems will stand, so please don't point them out.
I have survived the ordeal of learning enough basic video editing to complete a full draft of the video. It isn't perfect, but it may have to be good enough, depending on what changes, if any, I decide want to make, and weather or not they are possible for me to achieve using the file that already exists (as there isn't time to start over from a blank project). You can see the video here
https://youtu.be/QBggT4eOrPk
(this is the edited link, of the final version of the film, which is slightly different (better transitions) from what I posted a couple of days ago)
The documents that I turned in accompany the video for my application are:
Thesis Summary (500 words max)
My thesis twines together several main threads, the combined strength of which improves our understanding of cultural heritage and the history of an important resource. I am using analytical science to develop a whole new approach for steatite provenancing, I am cataloguing archaeological assemblages to better understand the Swedish steatite material culture record, and partaking in experimental archaeology to learn to carve and use my own steatite vessels.
Steatite, commonly known as soapstone, is a rock type that our ancestors have used for countless generations because it is softer, more easily carved, and retains heat better than any other stone, making it a perfect choice for cooking pots, forge stones, and many other everyday objects. During the Viking Age, steatite cooking vessels were used throughout Scandinavia and beyond, including places like Iceland, which have no soapstone quarries.
The ubiquitous use of steatite during the Viking age, both in Scandinavia and their colonies, makes this material well suited for archaeological studies interested in understanding exchange patterns between communities as well as ways in which even every-day household objects can reveal relative levels of status/wealth between individuals, farmsteads, and settlements.
However, while researchers have tested a variety of different approaches in their attempts to relate steatite geochemistry of artefacts to that of potential source quarries, they agree that the biggest challenge they face is that soapstone is a very heterogeneous rock type, which means that analyses of “whole rock” composition can yield very different results from a single outcrop. However, while the overall proportion of minerals changes across the quarry, the accessory minerals which can be present and the pattern of their compositions, are dependent upon the conditions (temperature, pressure, etc.) at which the rocks of that quarry formed.
Therefore, this study is the first to apply techniques for understanding the growth history of specific accessory minerals (originally developed for prospecting for new ore deposits) to define differences in steatite quarries that facilitates archaeological provenancing. Laser-Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is an approach which permits the production of detailed trace-element maps of minerals to reveal changes in composition across individual crystals that arose as a result of changes in their growing conditions. An understanding of the pattern of compositional changes within a single crystal, and how that compares with the composition of crystals of the same mineral from other locations, as well as how those changes relate to differences between the conditions under which the minerals at each location grew, is a key to “fingerprinting” the various locations.
My thesis database highlights such patterns of compositional change in a variety of accessory minerals which appear in steatite from 17 different locations in Sweden and Norway, and compares the difference in accessory mineral assemblages from different quarries. Such an approach can not only be applied to steatite artefacts from other locations, but even to other rock types, which unlocks a whole new way to trace stone artefacts back to their original source to inform interactions and trade network patterns.
______________________________________________
General Interest Pitch (750 words)
As an archaeologist, I am fascinated with the material culture of our ancestors. The every-day objects they left behind, and what these items can tell us of how they lived their lives, and of the networks that connected them to people in other areas. As a geologist, I have a special love for stone artefacts, especially for those made of steatite, commonly known as soapstone.
Steatite is a rock type that our ancestors have used for countless generations because it is softer, more easily carved, and retains heat better than any other stone. This makes it a perfect choice for cooking pots, forge stones, and many other everyday objects. During the Viking Age, steatite cooking pots were used throughout Scandinavia and beyond, including places like Iceland, which has no soapstone quarries. These pots were so popular and wide-spread that they lend themselves well to studies aiming to understand the trading networks that brought the stone pots from their quarries of origin to where they were used.
Unfortunately, steatite is not as easy to match to its source quarries as other rock types. This is because it forms from the alteration of older rocks by hot water flowing through cracks in the rock, which causes new minerals to grow and replace the old ones. This process often leads to quarries that look like patch-work quilts, with different concentrations of minerals in different parts of the quarry. Therefore, if you crush two random stones from the same quarry and analyse them to see what elements they are made from, you can get two very different results.
This is where my background as a geologist comes in. I understand that in every rock there exists both the major minerals—the crystals that make up the bulk of the stone, and the accessory minerals—tiny crystals that make up less than 20% of the total. It is those accessory minerals that interest me, because they can tell a story of the specific temperature and pressure at which the rock formed.
All minerals are built up from chemical elements, and each mineral type has its own crystal structure, with each element occupying specific places in the framework. However, most minerals also have a variety of optional elements that can replace some of its normal ones, and yet still be considered the same mineral. Just as a chocolate chip cookie is still a chocolate chip cookie even if it also contains nuts, or raisins or butterscotch chips.
With cookies, the baker chooses which extra ingredients to use each time, but with minerals it their growing conditions (such as temperature and pressure) that controls which, and how many extra elements wind up with places in its crystal structure. If, during the time a crystal grows, the conditions change, then the balance of those extra minerals will also change, making it possible for us to later read those changes.
The tool I use to be able to read these changes is called a “LA-ICP-MS”. “LA” stands for Laser-Ablation, which means using a laser to remove a little bit of the surface of a mineral, which gets sent through the “ICP”, or Inductively Coupled Plasma, which is made by heating argon gas. The plasma is so hot that the tiny mineral fragments are ionised, which makes it possible for the Mass Spectrometer (MS) to identify which elements (specifically isotopes) are present in the mineral (and how much of each).
The laser I use is so focused that it can remove a thin circle of mineral fragments only 10 µm (or 0.01 mm) wide, each time it fires. By firing the laser repeatedly, in rows across the surface of a rock, I send a steady stream of mineral fragments to be analysed, and the results are transformed into maps. The map colours show the changes in the amount of each element across the sample, and the combined patterns can be read like a fingerprint. Each quarry has a unique set of formation conditions (the temperature, pressure, starting rock type, and the composition of the hot fluid that flowed through it, triggering the growth of the new minerals). Together, these conditions control the compositional patterns of the accessory minerals. Thus, each quarry has a unique pattern.
I am creating a database of my results, which we can compare with analyses of steatite artefacts, in order to match the artefacts with their source quarries, thus providing critical evidence towards our understanding of the interactions and trade networks of the Viking Age.
__________________________________________
and a 2 page CV
While the deadline to apply isn't till the first week of April, I will be traveling from late Wednesday evening (trip planned long before I saw this opportunity),