Field Work: South Agean Volcanic Arc Database
Over the past four years, Christine Shriner has been working with James Brophy, to establish a source material data base for the Saronic Gulf portion of the South Aegean Volcanic Arc. This involves collecting representative samples of all volcanic materials on the islands of Aegina, Poros, Milos and the peninsula of Methana. The minerals in these reference materials were then analyzed by electron microprobe techniques to develop a mineral composition databank against which mineral compositions in individual artifacts can be compared. Dr. Chusi Li, Director of the IU Microprobe Laboratory, conducts the probe analyses.
The databank is presently being developed to quantitatively provenance sample sets of Aeginetan Ware, an important Bronze Age structural ceramic presumed to originate on Aegina Island. Dr. Brophy and I use what we have come to term the Integrated Petrologic Approach to fully characterize the sources and characteristics of true Aeginetan Ware. We then compare these results with similar studies on sample sets of presumed Aeginetan Ware excavated throughout the Aegean and mainland Greece.
Sample sets to date include many of the well-known sites of the Argolid, such as Argos, Lerna, Tsoungiza, and Asine. In addition we have sample sets from the prehistoric portions of the Athens Acropolis; Asea, a sanctuary site in Arcadia; Ayia Irini, an important site on the island of Keos; Halieis, a Neolithic site in the Southern Argolid, and Kolonna, the large production center on Aegina Island.
Contributing archaeologists include a range of US and international collaborators including colleagues from Gothenburg and Uppsala University, Sweden; University of Salzburg, Austria; Cambridge; Dartmouth; Bryn Mawr; University of California; Washington University; Florida State University; and Stanford.
Graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Geological Sciences do field work around the globe, working with a variety of international scholars. Some projects, such as this geoarchaeological field work and database, involve multi-disciplinary collaboration.
