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Archaeology of College Hill 2006
Archaeology of College Hill 2007
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology
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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]
Week 1 in the Lab
Today we began our lab work with a quick introduction to our new space and a tutorial on how to wash our artifacts. Then, we began cleaning all of the artifacts we found with water and a toothbrush. Slow but fruitful work. It is amazing how a bit of water and a light scrub can reveal so much about an artifact. All of a sudden, some of the pieces in my hand were springing into life as their surfaces were exposed for the first time in hundreds of years. There was quite a bit of glass and metal interspersed with some ceramics, shells, and bricks. After working fast and efficiently, we seemed to finish the whole batch of artifacts by the end of the period. I look forward to picking out the metal pieces and beginning a systematic study of what they might be and what that can tell us.
So this week we worked for the first time in the lab in Metcalf. While we mostly spent time cleaning the artifacts and putting them on drying racks, it was still pretty fun. It was fairly meticulous work, but it was nice to finally see the objects without dirt. Most of the objects I cleaned were brick, stones, glass, pottery, nails, and shell pieces. I particularly like some of the glass pieces - there were some rather brilliant blue fragments that were quite beautiful! For my final project, I will actually be examining the glass pieces we uncovered. Though I will probably start within the next two weeks on actually catagorizing these pieces, I look forward to the research.
This week was our first week in the lab. This first lab meeting was devoted to washing all of the artifacts. I washed countless brick, glass, and ceramic fragments using a toothbrush and a basin of water. Although the washing was a little dull, I was glad to be inside (its gotten really cold out). To preserve the provenance of the artifacts each section of a drying rack was labeled with an SU and artifacts from the corresponding SU were placed in that section. Washing the nails and other metal objects would have done more damage to than good and so these were just brushed off and placed in the drying rack. As the contents of each SU were spread out in the drying racks, it became obvious that some SU's had yielded far more artifacts than others. Next week we'll start to work on our individual final paper topics.
Today was our first day working in the lab. All we did was work on cleaning all of the artifacts we had found. We each had our own bucket of warm water and a toothbrush to use to scrub the artifacts. I had actually cleaned artifacts beore at Crow Canyon, so I thought it was cool that I had been through the process before. It was interesting to see all of the artifacts other people had found, such as pipe stems, beads, pieces of glass and pottery, and metal objects. We were not supposed to clean rusted metal objects or shells in case we might damage them. After we washed the artifacts, we laid them out on drying racks. Next week we will probably start each studying our individual artifacts/topics. My topic is brick, so hopefully I will be able to gain some useful information out of the artifacts I will study. I hope I will figure out how to analyze brick pieces and what they could mean!
Working in the lab was definitely interesting, certainly different than working in the field. Hopefully after next class, I will be able to update the 'Brick" portion of this wiki with my findings. Until then...
Just as an unrecognizable face regains its friendly familiarity after a simple wash, the dusty, mysterious artifacts that I plunged into the murky water as we cleaned our finds this week seemed to emerge imbued with a new intimacy and made anew as objects that reflect my own human passions and needs, not as sacrosanct vestiges of the past. Indeed, to pull these artifacts from the ground accentuated their historical significance and their difference from that which we surround ourselves in the present world, their existence apart from us - an otherworldliness. In bagging them, meticulously recording their presence, we seemed to shelter, quarantine, sequester them from a world of which they were not a part. Here in the plastic tub, they waited in purgatory, in awkward limbo, simple bits of the past not yet reconciled with our complex present.
But to remove them from their segregation, to clean them, to allow them to take on their appearance before time intervened, the artifacts became a part of the present world again. The haze of the ages, the dusty shroud of time was lifted, and I accepted them as objects in my present, transcending time... Gently plunging the artifacts into the tranquil waters, we removed that dust, a badge that heralded their difference from the dogma of the present; they were baptized into our brave new world...
After our class readings for this week, though, I can't help but wonder if our "conversion" of the objects was for the better. If it is true that archaeology is more reflective of what the archaeologist and his modern society value - that is, that the picture of the past painted by the archaeologist is truly a selective portrait highlighting only the parts that make for a pleasing picture - have we brought these artifacts into our world only to have their truth silenced? Will these innocent, unbiased representations of a former truth be manipulated - even unconsciously - to confirm our preconceived notions of our American history. Though try as we might, the temptation to see the clear glass fragments through rose-colored lenses is, I am afraid too great. In fact, it is perhaps not our personal flaw, but the original sin of our engagement in the dig to confirm some pre-meditated historical hypothesis about the past, that is our downfall. I wonder...
Are we corrupting the artifacts with vanity for our own age in accepting them into our world?... In any case, under the dusty shroud of time, a familiar world is revealed.
And now if you will excuse me, from under my fingernails, the sandy accumulation from washing must be removed!
Tyler
Today we cleaned all the artifacts from the dig. I have been spending a lot of time working with last years data and images for another project I am doing, and definitely thought previous to this class that last years finds were much more interesting. However, it became clear that all objects become more interesting when you see what they truly are- dirt removed- and grouped with others of a similar likeness. Then you can see pieces of ceramic fit together into a delicately painted plate, or marvel over the number of pipes found throughout the dig- these are things we are just now able to do with this years finds!
The actual process was monotonous and I hate to admit it- but my jealousy grew exponentially of those donning I-PODs throughout the class period. I need that distraction because then I forget about how tedious the work is, but I made it through, as we all did. I look forward to getting the data to work with in GIS!
First day in the lab! Working in the lab was very different from digging in the field: we didn't get dirty, we were warmer, and we had light the whole time! We worked pretty efficiently today, washing all of the artifacts we had found over the last eight weeks. I enjoyed seeing some of the artifacts that I had not uncovered and also being reminded of the ones I had found but about which I had already forgotten. Lab work also gave me time to think about my project -- faunal remains. Hmmm...maybe I'll have something to post about that this week
This week was the first week in the lab (although I think maybe we only have 2 or 3 weeks in the lab left, how strange). We spent the entire 2.5 hours washing our artifacts and we finished washing EVERTHING from the whole dig. It was neat to see some of the things that came from trenches I didn't dig in and also to reencounter some of my favorite artifacts from the trenchs I did dig in. I had a really good time chatting with Nicole and it was nice to be inside in a warm, lighted room instead of hauling bucks in the cold and dark. The closer we get to the end of the semester the more I realize I'm not really cut out for this course. My final is on ceramics and it's hanging over my head in a ridiculously forboding way and I plan to get started on it over Thanksgiving Break but it just seems so large and intimidating when paired with the fact that I have another 12 page research paper/project due in another class at about the same time as this one. I am not a fan of this sort of research.