Heather Lechtman

Heather Lechtman is an American materials scientist and archaeologist, and Director, Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology (CMRAE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She graduated from Vassar College with a BA Physics, and New York University with an MA in Fine Arts and Archaeology in 1966.

• 1984 MacArthur Fellows Program
• Dumbarton Oaks Fellow

• http://www.doaks.org/research/pre_columbian/doaks_pco_senior_fellows.html

• "The Inka, and Andean Metallurgical Tradition." In Variations in the Expression of Inka Power, R. Matos, R. Burger, C. Morris, eds., 2007, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 323–365.
• Esferas de Interacción Prehistóricas y Fronteras Nacionales Modernas: Los Andes Sur Centrales, H. Lechtman, ed., 2006, Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
• "La metalurgia del bronce en los Andes Sur Centrales: Tiwanaku y San Pedro de Atacama," with Andrew Macfarlane, Estudios Atacameños, 2005, 30: 7–27.
• "Arsenic Bronze at Pikillacta." In Pikillacta: The Wari Occupation of Cuzco. G. McEwan, ed., 2005, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, pp. 131–146.
• "Tiwanaku Period (Middle Horizon) Bronze Metallurgy in the Lake Titicaca Basin." In Tiwanaku and its Hinterland, Vol 2, A. Kolata, ed., 2003, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 404–434.
• Dorothy Hosler, Heather Lechtman, Olaf Holm (1990). Axe-monies and their relatives. Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0-88402-185-8.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
• Heather Lechtman and Linn Hobbs "Roman Concrete and the Roman Architectural Revolution", Ceramics and Civilization Volume 3: High Technology Ceramics: Past, Present, Future, edited by W.D. Kingery and published by the American Ceramics Society, 1986; and Vitruvius, Book II:v,1; Book V:xii2
• Elizabeth P. Benson, ed. (1979). "Issues in Andean Metallurgy". Pre-Columbian metallurgy of South America. Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0-88402-094-3. 
• Heather Lechtman, Lee Allen Parsons, William Jonathan Young (1975). Seven matched hollow gold jaguars from Peru's early horizon. Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0-88402-060-8.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)

How objects were made, what they were made of and how they were used, we see people making decisions at various stages, and the choices involve engineering as well as culture.

If people use materials in different ways in different societies, that tells you something about those people.