Published: May 22, 2012

Podcast: Using obsidian to understand the Maya.

The Field Museum collections are full incredible stories. In the 1930's archaeologist J. Eric Thompson collected several Maya obsidian objects from San José, Belize. Almost 80 years later, Field Museum scientists Gary Feinman (Curator of Mesoamerican Anthropology), Mark Golitko (Regenstein Postdoctoral Fellow) and Ryan Williams (Associate Curator and Chair of Anthropology), used modern techniques to analyze this Mayan objects and shed some light in the trading patterns of this civilization. 

Listen to Dr. Feinman's conversation about Maya obsidian research and get a better understanding on how Field Museum anthropologists are doing ground breaking research with the Museum's collections.

Watch Mark Golitko's Field Revealed episode about The X-Ray Fluorescence Lab.

Learn more about J. Eric Thompson collection.