ARCHAEOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY—EXPLORING HISTORY WITH CHEMISTRY - Chemistry: Notable Research and Discoveries - page 184

MuseumAppliedScienceCenterfor
Archaeology
Museums such as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,
D.C., and many other museums across the globe, display
a variety of artifacts from past cultures. Tools, weapons,
utensils, fabrics, and bones provide a rich visual description
of how people used to live and die. By visiting a museum, a
person can take a step back in time and get a sense of the
problems faced by people who came before, as well as the
tools and technology by which these people attempted to
solve these problems.
Yet there is even more knowledge to be gleaned from
these artifacts. Organizations such as the Museum Applied
Science Center for Archaeology, which is the scientifi c branch
of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology, strives to analyze and interpret excavated
artifacts with the aid of science and technology. This muse-
um, located on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania
in Philadelphia, opened in 1899 and features artifacts from
ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia, and much more.
Artifacts at the University of Pennsylvania's museum pro-
vide a rich source of material to explore. Scientifi c studies at
the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology include ar-
chaeometallurgy (the study of metal tools and weapons), faunal
analysis (the study of animal bones), and pottery analysis. The
staff also performs a lot of organics analysis, such as the wine
experiments described in the text. In 2007, the research cen-
ter participated in a study that showed the earliest known use
of chocolate—a chocolate beverage made from cacao beans
around 1400-1100 b . c . e . in Honduras, as discovered from an
analysis of pottery residues. John S. Henderson at Cornell Uni-
versity, along with researchers at the Museum Applied Science
Center for Archaeology, published this result in “Chemical and
Archaeological Evidence for the Earliest Cacao Beverages,” in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.