Delegate to the International Obsidian Conference (IOC)
Kyle P. Freund, Principal Investigator, Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Nevada, USA This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Kyle Freund (Ph.D. McMaster University) is a Principal Investigator at Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc. whose specializations include lithic analysis, obsidian sourcing via XRF spectrometry, GIS and spatial statistics, and field survey. Prior to joining Far Western, Kyle served as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Indian River State College in Ft. Pierce, FL. He has been involved in a diverse range of field projects throughout Italy, Greece, Turkey, Canada, and the United States, although his primary research centers on how obsidian sourcing studies can be used to address questions of broad archaeological significance. This includes focusing on the role of obsidian exchange and gift-giving practices in structuring early farming societies of the Mediterranean as well as identifying long-term mobility patterns of hunter-gatherers in the U.S. Great Basin.
Adrian Burke is an archaeologist specializing in the physico-chemical characterization of rocks and minerals used in the past to make tools and ornaments. He carries out most of his research, including geoarchaeological fieldwork, in northeastern North America. He currently directs an XRF laboratory dedicated to the geochemical analysis of geological samples and archaeological artifacts. He also uses other techniques such as thin section petrography, SEM, XRD, and NAA to characterize raw materials. Burke was a key member of both the scientific and local organizing committees for the 2019 GMPCA colloquium in Montreal, Canada, as well as previously serving as the SAS Vice President of Intersociety Relations.
Marcela Sepúlveda is archaeologist and Associate Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research concerned, since more than 15 years and from an interdisciplinary perspective (archaeology, anthropology, art history, chemistry, geology) with a strong archaeometric component and the physical-chemical characterization of materials, the materiality of art and color technology to specify the material practices and immaterial knowledge handled in the past with respect to the obtaining, production, consumption and circulation of mineral pigments. She conducted investigations in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, as well as in other regions of the country (semi-arid north and Patagonia) and neighbouring countries (Peru, Argentina), in the framework of several ongoing collaborative projects. Her research included several analytical techniques (SEM-EDS, XRF, DRX, Raman spectroscopy, between others) and prioritized in situ analyses. Sepúlveda was the SAS delegate to the VIII Congreso Nacional de Arqueometría (Argentina) in 2021. In 2022, she will serve as the SAS delegate to the combined conference of the Scientific Committees of the Latin American Congress of Archeometry and the Latin American Symposium on Physical and Chemical Methods in Archeology, Art and Conservation of Cultural Heritage.
Rebekah Kurpiel is the Director of La Trobe Archaeology Research Partnerships at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. In terms of archaeological science, she is interested in understanding past trade and transport patterns and in developing methods and methodologies for sourcing stone and ochre artefacts to investigate this. Rebekah has experience in undertaking trace element analysis (ICP-MS and pXRF), mineralogical analysis (XRD) and Pb isotope geochemistry to determine where artefacts originated. Rebekah is also interested in how scientific techniques can be employed to produce better outcomes in the context of cultural heritage/resource management. Rebekah has active research projects in Australia and South Africa, including work funded by the Australian Research Council, and is a committee member of the Australasian Research Cluster for Archaeological Science.