#microwear

Happy #MicrowearMonday ! . I was doing some tests this morning to see how I could take microscope photos through my old vintage microscope. I just used my phone camera to look through the lens at different magnifications at a scrap of material. The lowest two magnifications turned out okay, but the highest was still a bit tricky to get in focus with holding the phone still enough. I might have to see if I can set up something with my tripod so that it all holds steady. . There is also no light source on the microscope, which isn't such a big problem for the photos, because my camera seems to automatically use night mode to ensure that you can see what's at the end of the lens, but when I'm just looking through it myself it's a bit of an issue. I may therefore need to get myself one of those little clip-on reading lights to attach to the platform. . I also need to get a little scale bar of some sort, so that I can work out the measurements of each field of view and create a little scale for each level of magnification. I might even be able to use the one I have for my little USB Dino-lite microscope... More experiments required! . If anyone has any other suggestions on how I can improve my photo setup with this little microscope, do let me know! . #microscope #VintageMicroscope #MicrowearAnalysis #microwear #archaeologist #ArchaeologyLife #microscopic #HomeOffice #ArchaeologistsOfInstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CqSQ9JFKKbF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR2_f5aag6U

This Monday is a very exciting one because I'm back in the lab! . The travel restrictions between Germany and the Netherlands were relaxed last week, so I took the opportunity to travel back to the artefact analysis lab of Leiden University for two days of analysis. While I'm here, I'm taking microscopic pictures of all my experimental needles, to see if I can spot any patterns in the microwear traces created by sewing different materials. . Even with a mask on, and safety glasses to make sure that I don't contaminate the eye pieces, it's still so great to be back behind a microscope! Often during a PhD, I think that it's easy to get so caught up in the writing and admin and networking that it's easy to forget how your project started in the first place. Of course, all of those other things are still important, but for me at least there's something incredibly exciting and satisfying about putting a fresh object under the lens and adjusting the focus to find any traces that might be hiding in the surface. As could be expected, microscopic traces are not visible to the naked eye, so even though I've been working with these needles for a long time now, this is the first time that I can really reveal their secrets. It might not be discovering a groundbreaking ancient tomb or classifying a new cultural period, but to me it's an equally exciting form of exploration! . What is the most exciting or inspiring part of your current work? Do you have to remind yourself what sparked it all, or do you remember every day? . #Archaeology #archeologist #microwear #microwearanalysis #experimentalarchaeology #PhD #phdlife #theleveragedphd #academicsofinstagram #microscope #labwork #workspace #backtobasics #boneneedles #needles https://www.instagram.com/p/CQGjf6XrMDo/?utm_medium=tumblr

Wayhey it's #TechnologyTuesday and although I'm definitely missing having access to the lab and thus the lovely microscopes, I can still do a lot of my analysis at home. . This mainly involves making a lot of spreadsheets with different information related to my usewear observations. That's why it was so important to take good quality microscopic photos of the objects during my original data collection visit. Combining these with my detailed notes from these data collection trips means that I can make an in depth analysis without having to look again at the original objects. . Today I'm looking at the needles - here you can see some lovely examples of traces: usewear striations from being pulled through whatever material they were sewing at the time, and handling traces from where the needles were held during use. . #usewear #microwear #microwearanalysis #archaeologist #archaeology #PhD #phdlife #needles #analysis #excel #work #workingfromhome #Arctic #homeoffice https://www.instagram.com/p/CApF-iDALlO/?igshid=1utf3spxf00rb

A little bit late but it's technically still Microwear Monday! 🔬🎉 . Last week I gave a little workshop on microwear in collaboration with the student experimental archaeology group at @universityofgroningen . It was very successful! . With started with a one hour lecture where I gave a quick introduction to my research and the basics of microwear. Then we had a one hour practical where the students put what they'd learnt into practise by trying to see if they could work out what drill-bit materials had been used to perforate nodules of amber. (Using my experimental pieces from my masters). Everyone got the hang of it really quickly, and I hope that they had fun 😊 . #microwear #microwearanalysis #experimentalarchaeology #archaeology #archaeologist #PhD #phdlife #beads #microscope https://www.instagram.com/p/B9h3bVpHOrO/?igshid=ijwip1llk7zq

#TechnologyTuesday . I've said it many times on this little blog, but I'll say it again 😁: if you want to ensure that your archaeological research is taken seriously and considered as a science, documentation is key! . As an example, on my recent research trip I looked at each object - such as this whacky caribou leg pendant - in three different scenarios (eye level, low power microscopy, high power microscopy) and made sure to note down everything I noticed about them. This meant not only writing notes on the microwear traces observed, but also taking a ton (I believe that's the official numerical value...) of pictures at both a macro- and microscopic level. . With the high power pictures, this meant that I also had to note down exactly where on the object I took each photo. Seeing as the field of view is about a millimetre wide, this was very precise work! . #microwear #archaeology #archaeologist #bone #Arctic #writing #research #phd #phdlife #theleveragedphd https://www.instagram.com/p/B7k4U7fnmmy/?igshid=1ocrpjnlo9659

#TechnologyTuesday . Although the big microscope that I use in my analysis can help me to see the finer details of hope objects in the past were used, I really love using my trusty little dinolite USB microscope. . This is known as a "low power" microscope - going up to around 100x magnification. For my research, it helps me to see the traces of manufacture. For example, with carvings such as this beautiful ivory bird: Are the grooves cut into the surface V-shaped or U-shaped? Was the surface ground to shape or scraped? Do all the grooves start from the same orientation? Are there any smoother or polished sections? . The answers to these questions can give clues as to what kinds of tools and techniques were used to make the object. From this, we can then expand our investigation to look at identifying individual carvers, or seeing the flow of information or objects between different communities. . From one tiny cut, you can see how a community lived over 1000 years ago! 🔬 . #microwear #microwearanalysis #carving #ivorycarving #ivory #Arctic #PhD #phdlife #theleveragedphd #archaeology #archaeologist #microscope https://www.instagram.com/p/B5U6-eBA1Bc/?igshid=o878esoj8w9x

Much better now that I have all the necessary equipment! 😅 . #dinolite #microscope #microwear #microwearanalysis #archaeology #PhD #theleveragedphd #phdlife https://www.instagram.com/p/B5IbPyGg4re/?igshid=1ubcm05ykwnyh