Recommended Instrument for Lithic Sourcing

[Hannah Calistri]

Hello everyone—

I am a graduate student currently working with a Bruker Tracer 5i for assessing inorganic pesticide residues on museum collections. Our graduate program also wants to use the instrument for lithic sourcing, but we are wondering if there is another instrument recommended.

Our main issue with the Tracer is software glitches with Artax. The software problems definitely affect my work when it comes to peak identification. However, I am unaware of shortcomings with the Tracer for sourcing. It seems to be quite capable of doing that type of analysis (however, I have not used the instrument for this application myself). 

If there is a "better" instrument for lithic sourcing (especially for obsidian and rhyolite), please let me know. 

Thank you everyone!

Hannah Calistri