The lab is up and running! We are getting a lot of artifacts and they all have to go somewhere. Basically, everything from the field is kept in bags and brought into the lab. These bags are now being divided by artifact type so that makes my job a lot easier. Artifacts are pretty much anything that has been used or manipulated by people.
Here at Al-Baleed we are near a beach so we find a lot of shell, but the question becomes--is that shell that washed from the beach or is that shell that someone did something with? The same applies for bone--did that goat happen to wander over and die here or did someone cook him? There are also a ton of fish bones so again did poor Nemo get washed ashore or did someone put him there for a reason.
Pottery is a lot easier, obviously it didn't make itself, but people have been making pottery for thousands and thousands of years and they still make it today. So WHEN did they make that pottery? 1995 or 1295?
We have various other artifacts as well, some coins, some glass pieces (& even a few bracelets made of glass), a few small rocks that look like they may have been chipped from flint and a lot of large rocks. Rocks are always a problem (in a good way.) Obviously, mother nature makes a ton of rocks but people use them in a variety of ways, we have to be able to understand how they were used & why. We have found a mano (stone held in the hand for grinding), a lot of building materials--rocks made into walls--and a mysterious rock that is a semi circle and made from "beach" rock so it looks like it is full of shells. Cool but weird.
By keeping everything we find we can get an idea of what was going on at the time and some pieces lead to explanations of other pieces. Archaeology is very much like a jigsaw puzzle, if we didn't keep all the little pieces we wouldn't be able to see the whole picture.
Next time the how the artifacts go through the lab.
Here at Al-Baleed we are near a beach so we find a lot of shell, but the question becomes--is that shell that washed from the beach or is that shell that someone did something with? The same applies for bone--did that goat happen to wander over and die here or did someone cook him? There are also a ton of fish bones so again did poor Nemo get washed ashore or did someone put him there for a reason.
Pottery is a lot easier, obviously it didn't make itself, but people have been making pottery for thousands and thousands of years and they still make it today. So WHEN did they make that pottery? 1995 or 1295?
We have various other artifacts as well, some coins, some glass pieces (& even a few bracelets made of glass), a few small rocks that look like they may have been chipped from flint and a lot of large rocks. Rocks are always a problem (in a good way.) Obviously, mother nature makes a ton of rocks but people use them in a variety of ways, we have to be able to understand how they were used & why. We have found a mano (stone held in the hand for grinding), a lot of building materials--rocks made into walls--and a mysterious rock that is a semi circle and made from "beach" rock so it looks like it is full of shells. Cool but weird.
By keeping everything we find we can get an idea of what was going on at the time and some pieces lead to explanations of other pieces. Archaeology is very much like a jigsaw puzzle, if we didn't keep all the little pieces we wouldn't be able to see the whole picture.
Next time the how the artifacts go through the lab.
No comments:
Post a Comment