Overview

Yuko Shiratori conducted an analysis of 1,126 obsidian blades and flakes from Tayasal and Nixtun-Ch’ich’ using a Bruker portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) device. She is working with Nathan Meissner and Timothy Pugh to publish the results.

Obsidian Cache Contents, Str T31, Tayasal

Nathan Meissner conducted a pXRF analysis of several hundred Postclassic side-notched projectile points.

Side Notched Points, Zacpeten

Results

3D visualization of Shiratori’s results.

Dissertation of Meissner’s results.

How does it work?

A good summary of pXRF can be found on the website of The Field Museum.