Abstract
Analysis of perishable artifacts has at times been hampered by our inability to “see inside” an item to examine internal construction and attribute characteristics. Early researchers sometimes resorted to dissection to determine construction sequences and to view interior elements, but this practice is destructive and currently avoided. In this article, I discuss the use of soft X-ray radiography (using medical X-ray units designed for mammography) to analyze perishable artifacts. Case studies from the North American Great Basin and Southwest demonstrate the utility of this technique as effective, nondestructive, and inexpensive.
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Acknowledgments
My thanks to Utah Valley Hospital (especially Mike Harward) and the Imaging Center of the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center (especially Bill Tracy) for performing the radiography of cultural materials and to the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, Utah Museum of Natural History, and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology for graciously allowing me to analyze the artifacts from their collections. Special thanks to Ed Jolie for offering useful comments on an earlier draft and to Laurie Webster for her comments, encouragement, and copy editing.
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Yoder, D.T. Invisible Culture: The Use of Soft X-ray Radiography in Perishable Research. J Archaeol Method Theory 20, 1–17 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-011-9123-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-011-9123-2