They may not teach it at UC Berkeley, or in the Ivy League universities, but
optical microscopy remains an essential technique in geology and is widely
taught at less prestigious universities, like mine. The oil industry couldn't
function without petrographers/micropalaentologists - most oil drilling rigs
these days have a petrographic thin section lab and petrographer on board for
rapid identification of carbonate microfossils in drill cores.
There are also many excellent petrographers in European archaeology
departments
- but almost all work on earthenware pottery and lithics (e.g.
greenstone axes,
Stonehenge), not on metallurgical remains. Britain has a lot of them, in large
part because David Peacock at Southampton trained them to work on the sources
of Roman amphorae, etc.
Quoting Mark Hall <[log in to unmask]>:
> But who teaches petrography any more? Geology in the UC system has tended
> towards
> isotope studies or theoritical studies--just ask Steve Shackley how
> hard it is
> when he tries to get one
> lecture on it for his archaeometry courses!
>
> best, MEH
>
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