W&M Featured Events
[PAST EVENT] "Spectacular New Views from the Windowless Lab" - Dr. Peter Mills, University of Hawai'i at Hilo
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- Open to the public
Dr. Peter Mills, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo, will discuss his ongoing research with the sourcing of Polynesian stone tools with non-destructive Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF), and some of the new interpretations of Pacific Island economies that have resulted from the analyses of over 40,000 stone artifacts and geological samples at the Hilo lab. The presentation will focus on some of the trade-offs between conducting non-destructive EDXRF versus employing high-precision and more expensive instrumentation to geochemically characterize stone artifacts and geological samples. Close collaborations between petrologists and archaeologists on this project over the last 14 years have resulted in a number of mutually beneficial applications in geology and archaeology, including recent near-real-time analyses of the lavas from the 2018 eruptions along Kilauea's East Rift Zone.
Sponsored by the William & Mary Department of Anthropology, Department of Geology, Reves Center, Office of Student Leadership, and the Graduate Student Association.