Laboratories

The Department has laboratory facilities in material sciences research, archaeology, museum studies, multimedia technology and teaching, and associated computer facilities.

DEPARTMENTAL LABORATORIES (in alphabetical order)

Archaeobotany Laboratory. Archaeological macroplant material is analyzed in the Archaeobotany Laboratory. The Archaeobotany Laboratory also contains a large north and south American modern plant type collection as well as a identification library. At present this laboratory also houses the Materials Analysis Laboratory (a wet lab) which allows for microbotanical analysis, especially of pytoliths.

Director: Professor Christine Hastorf

65 Kroeber Hall

510.643.1112

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Archaeological X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) Laboratory. The Archaeological X-Ray Fluorescence Laboratory provides access to analyses of archaeological and source standard obsidian, other volcanic and sedimentary rocks, and ceramics, particularly focused on non-destructive analyses. The lab currently processes more materials from the American Southwest than any other facility in the country. These analyses provide training in archaeological materials science and archaeological chemistry to undergraduate and graduate students in geology, archaeology and other departments, both through regularly offered courses and special projects. While the research is focused on analyses of archaeological obsidian from the greater American Southwest including southern California, Baja California, Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora and Chihuahua, rock and ceramic artifacts from all regions have been run through the lab. Additionally, the facility provides a portal to other laboratories in Earth and Planetary Sciences including scanning electron microscopy, optical petrography, electron microprobe, x-ray diffraction, ICP-MS, and many others. A number of Senior Thesis projects and doctoral dissertations have relied on these facilities through Professor Shackley's direction.

Director: Prof. M. Steven Shackley

232 Kroeber

510.642.2533

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California Archaeology Laboratory. Archaeological materials from various sites in California, primarily from the greater San Francisco Bay Area are analyzed in the California Archaeology Laboratory. Recent projects include the analysis of materials from the Russian outpost of Fort Ross, the Petaluma Adobe (Vallejo's Mexican Rancho), the Presidio of San Francisco, a Kashaya Pomo village, sites in Yosemite Valley, and even a Plains Indian site used for butchering buffalo in Colorado. The kinds of materials that are analyzed include chipped stone artifacts, ground stone tools, bone and shell artifacts, ceramics, glass fragments, ethnobotanical materials, and faunal remains.

Director: Professor Kent Lightfoot

55 Kroeber Hall

510.643.1112

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Central American Archaeology Laboratory. Archaeological materials on loan from Honduras for specialized analyses are curated and prepared for technical study in the Central American lab. Faunal remains, flotation samples, radiocarbon samples, and obsidian and ceramic samples for compositional analysis are all currently under study in this lab.

East Asian Archaeology Laboratory. Faunal and floral remains from the Sannai Maruyama site (circa 5900-4300 b.p.) in northern Japan are analyzed in the East Asian Laboratory. Also researched are the pottery and stone tools from Sannai Maruyama as well as from several other sites dated to the Jomon period (circa 13000-2300 b.p.).

Director: Professor Junko Habu

312-314 Kroeber Hall

510.643.2837

Eurolab 1: Çatalia, Neolithic Archaeology of Anatolia and Southeast Europe. This research room houses the archives of the archaeological prjects in Yugoslavia (Selevac, Opovo, Gomolava) and Bulgaria (Podgoritsa) that Dr. Ruth Tringham carried out with Dr. Mirjana Stevanovic. It is the focus of their current excavation project at the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Drs. Stevanovic and Tringham's research at these sites focuses on architecture and the life-histories of houses (see Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük (BACH) web site).

This lab is used by Dr. Stevanovic and a number of graduate students and Undergraduate Research Apprentices working with the project. Primary materials from the sites are not housed here—they must remain in their respective countries. The lab houses fieldwork plans and media libraries, and some samples for analysis in the U.S.

Eurolab 2: Paleolithic Archaeology. This research room is a focus for the map and computer-based analyses for the on-going project, "Between the Caves: Regional Open Air Survey in the French Midi-Pyrénées, France," directed by Dr. Margaret Conkey. Geographic Information Systems, geomorphological map analyses, and historic landscape research are carried out here, as are a variety of projects by graduate students dealing with issues of hunter-gatherer landscapes, art, and archaeology. Undergraduate Research Apprentices are active here, in support of the Between the Caves project. When some materials have been brought from the field sites, lithic analysis is carried out here as well.

Historical Archaeology Laboratory. In the Historical Archaeology Laboratory materials manufactured within the last 400 years, including artifacts of European, Native American, Asian and African origins, are analyzed. Materials currently being analyzed in the lab are from sites in Colorado, Louisiana, the Bahamas and California. A large collection of comparative historical materials, a material source library, and a comparative zooarchaeological collection emphasizing domesticated species and Caribbean fish are housed in the Historical Archaeology Laboratory. A microfilm reader and a number of computers are available there as well.

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Multimedia Authoring Center for Teaching in Anthropology (MACTiA) In 1998, the Class of 1960 Multimedia Authoring Center for Teaching in Archaeology (MACTiA) was established with 15 workstations (predominantly Macintosh platform) and associated equipment in rooms 12-13 of 2224 Piedmont.

The aim of the MACTiA is to provide workstations and software support for teaching courses in which multimedia technology is integrated into regular anthropology courses. A unique aspect of this center is that it is dedicated to teaching the authoring of multimedia (more strictly hypermedia) works. The center also runs a server through which its teaching and research activities are coordinated and the center web site is maintained. Workshops in aspects of multimedia and web-authoring are offered each semester by MACTiA staff. In addition, application to use the center for graduate and faculty research projects is encouraged (see the MACTiA web site).

The MACTIA is not a drop-in lab but a classroom that has been designed to support a pedagogical philosophy that encourages learning through intensive coaching of team projects, specifically of multimedia/hypermedia products, in an intimate non-threatening setting. The MACTiA program was awarded an Educational Initiatives Award in April 2001.

Oceanic Archaeology Laboratory. The Oceanic Archaeology Laboratory is the focus for: (1) analysis of prehistoric Oceanic ceramics; (2) analysis of Oceanic lithics, including thin-sectioning and geochemical characterization; (3) identification of charcoal and other macrobotanical remains from Oceanic sites; (4) geoarchaeological analysis of sediments from habitation and agricultural sites in Oceania; and (5) development of GIS databases for several Oceanic archaeology projects.

The Undergraduate Archaeology Teaching Laboratory is an Anthropology teaching lab for hands-on teaching of archaeological methods, with equipment including a computer network, scales, and microscopes. Subjects taught include faunal analysis, archaeological lab methods, and GIS applications in archaeology. There is space for storing, sorting, cleaning, cataloging, and analyzing artifacts, and a computer network for creating and sharing databases of archaeological data.

Lab Manager:Steve Shackley

Hearst Bldg., Rm. 16

510.642.8105

A campus computing facility is the Social Science Computing Laboratory (SSCL) which provides services for undergraduate and graduate instruction in the social sciences, as well as graduate research support. The focus is on meeting the needs of social scientists for assistance with statistical software (STATA, SPSS), bibliographic software (Endnote) and providing expertise in support of standard desktop applications.

The Social Science Computing Laboratory Instructional Facility can be scheduled for graduate and undergraduate classes in the social sciences. It is located in 64-66 Barrows Hall, 643.1579.

The Graduate Student Drop-In Facility is a campus computing facility open to graduate students and faculty in the social sciences and its affiliates. There is card key access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Pentium class Windows PCs, Macs and UNIX workstations totalling 30 seats are available. The facility is located at 61 Barrows Hall, 643.1579. To make arrangements to use the facility, e-mail: gradlab@sscl.berkeley.edu or call: 642.7762.

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Faculty Research
Organs Watch
Biotechnology
Multimedia Authoring: MACTiA
Faculty Monographs
Journal Articles

Lecture Series
290 Lecture Series
MedAnthro Lecture Series
ARF Brown Bag Lecture Series
Emeritus Lecture Series

Student Organizations
K.A.S.
A.G.O.R.A.
A.U.A.
Graduate Student Contacts

Organized Research Groups
Critical Studies in Medicine,
Science and the Body

Area Studies Centers

Related Research Centers