Center for Materials Research in Archaeology & Ethnology (CMRAE)
See the CMRAE website for complete details on current research projects. Some key faculty research is highlighted below.
Further Information
Follow all UROP procedures for pay or credit. UROP for Credit is arranged through the faculty supervisor's academic deparment.
Some Related Areas for UROPs
Anthropology/Archaeology, Materials Science and Engineering, Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering
Faculty Research Descriptions
- Prof. Dorothy Hosler, 8-106, x3-6991 hosler@mit.edu
- Study of variety of ancient Mexican technologies: metal production (west Mexico--Jalisco and Michoacan) through laboratory studies (metallographic studies and chemical analyses) of ancient articfacts to identify fabrication methods alloy/property design relationships; through experimental replication of smelting regimes and production techniques especially lost wax casting, and through lead isotope studies of copper ores and copper artifacts to determine where ancient mexican smiths were obtaining raw materials. We are also carrying out studies of pottery and plaster production technology (Aztec) through petrographic thin section analyses of pottery and plaster samples and analyses of clays. Another research area concerns the production, and use of rubber (for rubber balls, sandles religious objects) through experimental replication of possible processing regimes. UROPs sometimes invlove travel to Mexico with Prof. Hosler and colleagues to participate in the collection of primary data.
- Prof. Heather Lechtman, 16-401, x3-2172 lechtman@mit.edu
- Prehistoric metallurgies of the New World; laboratory studies of metal artifacts from the cultures of North, Central, and South America. (Limited to students with good laboratory preparation.)
