WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD BIOSYSTEMS ANALYSIS OBSIDIAN LAB?
The BioSystems Obsidian Studies Laboratory began as a division of BioSystems Analysis, a firm whose parent office was located in Santa Cruz, California. When Craig came on in late 1994 to look after the obsidian labs, the XRF Lab was located in Santa Cruz and the hydration lab was situated in Sacramento. In late 1995 and early 1996, the two labs were reunited in Corvallis, Oregon. Kathy Davis, the XRF analyst in Santa Cruz, also initially moved north with the spectrometer. Jennifer Thatcher, our longtime obsidian hydration analyst, started in Corvallis immediately after the move and was trained by Jay King, the previous BioSystems obsidian hydration analyst (he and Kathy Davis are now married and they and their two children are living in Sacramento, California). Shortly thereafter, BioSystems Analysis fell into financial difficulties and bankruptcy court. I took over management of the labs, changed the name to Northwest Research, made an offer for the lab assets, and finally bought the whole works in late 1996. Much of the staff and hardware remain the same and only the name was initially changed. All the original BioSystems obsidian-related records, obsidian and FGV source reference material, and archived obsidian hydration slides are safely stored here in Corvallis.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OBSIDIAN HYDRATION LABORATORY?
As of January 1st, 2014, the obsidian hydration lab lives on as Willamette Analytics and is now owned and operated by Jennifer Thatcher, longtime hydration analyst for Northwest Research. I continue to maintain a close relationship with Jennifer and Willamette Analytics and I'll be happy to forward any artifacts on to her after XRF analysis is complete.