Jessie Stolark's MSAG Project

Jessie next to the X-Ray Diffractometer

My MSAG Project is a raw materials provenance study for a group of Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) archaeological sites located in the Wadi al-Hasa region of West Jordan.  This work is being carried out in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, in conjunction with the Department of Anthropology here at Penn.

During the Paleolithic, the Wadi al-Hasa region was characterized by an expansive lacustrine environment.  Ancient hunter gatherers inhabited the once lush region, leaving behind traces of human habitation such as animal bones, charcoal, pollen, and stone artifacts.  Chert materials were widely available in the Wadi al-Hasa to ancient groups.  Pedestrian geological studies carried out by archaeologists support three major chert-bearing formations that were available in the region during the Pleistocene In chert rich areas, people mainly exploit sources within close proximity to settlements; therefore resource availability has not been as extensively studied in the region as compared to other areas of the world.

My project is using powder X-Ray Diffraction to test the assumption that local chert sources were usually exploited in favor of geographically further resources.  X-Ray Diffraction is able to tell us the mineralogical makeup of a particular sample.  Using XRD, a group of possible chert sources are being compared to stone tools that have been collected.  Through X-Ray Diffraction, we may be able to definitively answer whether or not a particular tool was sourced from a particular location.  This will help archaeologists understand reasons particular materials were selected during the Paleolithic period.