Precise measurement standards have revolutionized museum science, helping nail down where artifacts are from

On February morning in 1904, spark rake In the heart of the city center of Baltimore. Within hours, raging hell has swept east across the Harbor region, and consumes everything on its way. By evening, the local firefighters were drowning, and the city sent a telegram to the fire heads in the main northeastern cities that require help in fighting the fire.

Washington, Philadelphia and New York, along with other cities, responded quickly with dozens of engines. However, when they arrived at the scene, many respondents were unable to connect the taps in Baltimore because each city has its own strings to connect the fire hoses.

The fire has caused damage to more than $ 3.5 billion in dollars today. She created a call to National Standard for threads For hoses and ports of fireproof. These criteria are now improving emergency responses throughout the country – and the same concept of standardization allows the symmetrical consistency and copying in scientific research.

In science, the ideal way to evaluate data is associated with the concept that causes calls to unified fire hose equipment. When scientists compare their results with the results obtained in other laboratories, or with the data published in advance, the comparisons are more important if all data groups are made with uniform practices and reference materials.

Museum scholars Like us Extend Convincing visions in the natural world, prehistoric heritage and historical cultural heritage. Like many other scholars, our work, and the measurements we take day after day, depend on standard references.

Here we offer two wonderful stories from the Smithsonian Foundation Museum preservation institute This highlights how scientific measurement criteria allow new exciting discoveries:

You are what you drink

In 2007, the New Mexico Reclamation Office extracted the remains of dozens of civil war era soldiers from Fort Craig. They left behind when it was the fortress Abandoning the year 1885.

Smithsonian anthropologists and the New Mexico Recam American American soldiers of African originA group that constitutes a relatively small percentage of the US military at the time.

The historical records of the researchers tell that most of the military units in Fort Craig are mobilized from Kentucky and Virginia, but the official records do not always tell the full story. A group of project scientists, which included one of us, Christine France, needed a way to confirm the origin of these individuals and restore some identity to these forgotten soldiers.

The researchers decided to use Stable analogy analysis On the bones. This technique calculates the number of atoms of a specific element in the sample that contains one or more Additional neutrons This is the “heavy” analog – and compares it to the number of atoms that have a normal number of neutrons – this is the “light” analog.

Drinking water in southern latitudes has more Of course, heavy oxygen atoms occur Compared with northern latitudes. If the soldier’s bones are relatively high of relatively heavy oxygen atoms, this soldier will spend more time drinking water from the south.

The researchers measured oxygen analogues in other archaeological remains and in water throughout North America, which gives us a Water “isotope mapBut matching the values ​​of bone counterparts with the water map is similar to comparing apples with orange, and each laboratory has accurate differences in his tools.

In this case, the standard was the average value of oxygen counterparts for the ocean water, an agreement agreed upon by the sedentary seat researchers as a consistent and easily available value. Researchers have now had a unified method to know the number of heavy oxygen isotopes – or less – the bones they contain compared to ocean water standards.

Other antiquities laboratories and water counterpart map in North America use the same standard comparison, allowing them to compare all the values ​​of the bone counterpart directly with each other, and a map of water counterpart in North America.

In the end, the method Help the team to get to know Many soldiers who came from far away to join the company, including individuals who are likely to be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, New England and Southeast.

The fine conditions that brought these soldiers together are lost for history. But the ability of the researchers to appoint a geographical source for them with the help of reference standards gave them more insight into this central time in the history of the United States.

Volcanic glass mirrors

Humans were always fascinated by looking at themselves in the mirror. In Central America-in the middle of the modern era and southern Mexico with Northern Central America-archaeologists-archaeologists Connaed round creatures Permanently polished so that it is called mirrors.

But instead of using it for vanity, the shaman is likely to be from ancient times Use it as a tool To reach the gates to other dimensions.

The oldest mirrors before classic (2000 BC to 250 AD) Designed from The polished iron materials were made, but later the post -paint mirrors (from 900 m to 1450 m) from Obsidian, usually were manufactured Black silica -rich volcanic glass.

The groups at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indians contain six large mirrors of rectangular shirt, which was purchased in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Their posters state that it comes from “Valley of Mexico”.

Archaeologists rarely find a rectangular mirrors like these in drilling sites before Columbus. Therefore, the local craftsmen are likely to be skilled in the polishing of the stone. These things are unusual at the request of Spanish invaders soon from European communication. But from which Central American culture came from it?

Scientists from the Museum Preservation Institute, including two of us, Thomas Lam and Edward Vicenzi, and a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, worked with employees of the National Museum of the American Indians On the effort to Select any volcano I created the joke in the mirrors.

The Al -Sajdi source website indicates whether the Aztec who controls east in the center of Mexico, or Boricha, which controlled the West Aztec region, produced things, because both had extensive sources of tra referring in its territory.

To conduct such a study, researchers require two types of reference materials: Obsidian that broke out from well -known volcanic sites, and a reference of scientists already knowing a composition to confirm the quality of the analysis.

The first of the two references, of well -known sites, told those looking for differences in the geological chemistry of volcanoes in the center of Mexico. This information allowed them to match mirror analyzes with well -known volcanic site analyzes and MAP coordinates. The second reference served Obsidian as the quality control sample of the analysis.

Scientists of the Museum Preservation Institute used a non -destructive technique called the X -ray spectrum measuring to analyze the proportions of the elements in plug. This process works through the “exciting” atoms in the teas, and a set of x -ray energies are given as “relaxation”.

The results showed that all samples came from a region controlled by Purépecha, not Aztec. The museum’s coordinators updated their records describing mirrors to include this new information about their origin.

Create standards

Unified measurement procedures and reference materials play a major role in museum science. Organizations for strict measurement, such as National Institute for Standards and TechnologyFederal government agency, helping some of these standards and researching new measurement procedures.

Without their leadership, it will be difficult for researchers like us to produce high -quality data and distinguish relationships between samples in natural and cultural heritage sciences. With quality measurement standards in our toolbox, we find new visions in the history of mankind and the natural world.

This article has been republished from ConversationAn independent, non -profit news organization brings you facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. Written by: Edward Vicenziand Smithsonian Institute; Christine Franceand Smithsonian InstituteAnd Thomas Lamand Smithsonian Institute

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Edward Vicenzi is a guest researcher at the National Institute for Standards and Technology at the Materials Measurement Laboratory.

Christine France and Thomas Lam does not work in their favor or consulting them or received funding from any company or organization that will benefit from this article, and did not reveal any related affiliations that exceed its academic appointment.