This part is either love it or hate it. Most find it either boring or the best part of archaeology. What most people don't understand it that it is actually made up of many, many parts. I'm talking about the lab, of course.
All the artifacts that are collected have to go and live somewhere, forever. Not only does that mean that they need a permanent home but also some way to find them again if they are needed. Artifacts are kept for research, display, and the idea that in the future someone (or machine) may be smarter than we are now and be able to tell us something we missed. So, not only the most pretty, most possibly reconstructed, or most likely to be studied are kept but everything else as well.
We pretty much have one space that we are using for all parts of the lab. Let me walk you through it...
First, artifacts are brought in from the field. In the field they are bagged & tagged & once they get to the lab we must check to make sure we didn't lose any along the way. We call that the "check in". Krista & I compare notes to make sure each bag is accounted for & then I sort them on a table.
After the bags are sorted they are brought into the lab and sorted again (you are going to see that word a lot) by type if possible. Some bags only contain pottery, some bone, etc. Most bags are a mixed lot so those are set aside for later. The pottery bags are organized, each bag has to remain separate & unique throughout the process, then sent to one of the workers to wash. (Let me just say that my pottery washer is the BEST he sits down, turns on the radio on his phone and washes like a mad man. I can hardly keep ahead of him some days!) Bone is currently being cleaned by a new employee of The Land of Frankincense, Ahmed. He spends the first half of the day in the field then comes in to help me in the lab.
Bags that are mixed have to be sorted out. Each item is looked at then divided on a tray (so as not to lose anything) into large groups. Things like shell, bone, metal, glass, rocks, pottery, etc. are all grouped together. Pottery is sent to be washed (this usually takes place outside for obvious reasons,) bone is lightly brushed, shell is usually given a quick rinse, metal & glass are left alone (the glass we are getting is very fragile and tends to break if you try to wash it.) We also are finding some coins and a few ground stones or other stones used in building.
After the quick/rough sort the tray of artifacts is photographed. Everything has to be kept track of since again it all has to remain grouped together (according to the bag it came in from the field) until it is recorded and stored. Once everything has dried it is bagged by type. So all the shell goes into a bag, the pottery, the bone, etc. We also have what we call "special finds" things that are really cool or that we aren't sure what they are, or maybe we know what it is and it is very fragile.
After each item is bagged the whole Lot (bag it came in from the field) is divided out & numbered. Each group of items gets a number that starts with BA13A (al Baleed, 2013, Season A) after that it gets the number of the bag it was in (the lot number) and finally the type is noted. So bone ends up looking like this: BA13A.24.B. Once you see that number it tells you many things about that object or group of objects. Each bag is also labeled with a unique number that tells you where it came from (literally) in the field, we call this the Locus Number. It would be something like 1.R.2 (Area 1, Unit R, Locus 2.) You may have heard Unit referred to as square and Locus as layer, depends on where you come from and when you went to school. ;-)
Now that we have a bag of bones that are labeled they also have to be recorded in the database. Krista, Kevin (a friend from home), and Brian designed the database and the forms we all use. Now that the info is all recorded digitally (on an iPad) that bag of bones is ready for storage. In the future anyone interested in the bones can look at the database and see a picture of them, search the database and find all the bones or simply walk to the box in storage that says "Bones".
There is a bit more to this but you get the idea and I don't want to bore you. One thing to note is that pottery/ceramics (there is a difference don't get an archaeologist started on what that is, you'll be sorry) and any lithic (chert/flint--see above argument) materials are being analyzed here in the lab. Sarah is handling ceramics and Lamya is handling lithics. Every piece found is being looked at by them and they decide if they want to individually photograph it, draw it, give it a special number or location so they can find it again. There is a special area of the lab for them to use for these purposes.
Once artifacts have gone through this entire process they are stored in boxes, eventually these will go to the museum with detailed notes as to which unique numbers live inside.
The other parts of the lab are used for computer areas, storage areas, and supply storage areas. It's a big room but with five or more of us in here at once it gets a little chaotic. I end up getting most of my work done between 630-1030 (tea break) & 1100-130. After lunch, which is usually from 200-300, we have a meeting and rehash of the days events & we plan for the next day. By 430-500 we sort of divide off. I go play tennis, some people work in the lab, some swim, some relax. Dinner is around 800 PM then we are almost all in bed by 1000 since we are working by 630 AM.
You can see why some people love the lab (its inside being the biggest selling point,) it is organized and requires thought, detail, and multitasking--all things I love. You can also see why people hate the lab... for the same reasons mentioned above. ;-)
Speaking of the lab, we are working on a project to fund the lab with supplies not provided for us here or from our Univeristies at home. Some things are software related, some are drawing tools, some are items to make life easier in the lab (like cloth instead of plastic bags.) If you'd like to learn more visit:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/al-baleed-let-s-save-the-land-of-frankincense/x/3601610
All the artifacts that are collected have to go and live somewhere, forever. Not only does that mean that they need a permanent home but also some way to find them again if they are needed. Artifacts are kept for research, display, and the idea that in the future someone (or machine) may be smarter than we are now and be able to tell us something we missed. So, not only the most pretty, most possibly reconstructed, or most likely to be studied are kept but everything else as well.
We pretty much have one space that we are using for all parts of the lab. Let me walk you through it...
First, artifacts are brought in from the field. In the field they are bagged & tagged & once they get to the lab we must check to make sure we didn't lose any along the way. We call that the "check in". Krista & I compare notes to make sure each bag is accounted for & then I sort them on a table.
After the bags are sorted they are brought into the lab and sorted again (you are going to see that word a lot) by type if possible. Some bags only contain pottery, some bone, etc. Most bags are a mixed lot so those are set aside for later. The pottery bags are organized, each bag has to remain separate & unique throughout the process, then sent to one of the workers to wash. (Let me just say that my pottery washer is the BEST he sits down, turns on the radio on his phone and washes like a mad man. I can hardly keep ahead of him some days!) Bone is currently being cleaned by a new employee of The Land of Frankincense, Ahmed. He spends the first half of the day in the field then comes in to help me in the lab.
Bags that are mixed have to be sorted out. Each item is looked at then divided on a tray (so as not to lose anything) into large groups. Things like shell, bone, metal, glass, rocks, pottery, etc. are all grouped together. Pottery is sent to be washed (this usually takes place outside for obvious reasons,) bone is lightly brushed, shell is usually given a quick rinse, metal & glass are left alone (the glass we are getting is very fragile and tends to break if you try to wash it.) We also are finding some coins and a few ground stones or other stones used in building.
After the quick/rough sort the tray of artifacts is photographed. Everything has to be kept track of since again it all has to remain grouped together (according to the bag it came in from the field) until it is recorded and stored. Once everything has dried it is bagged by type. So all the shell goes into a bag, the pottery, the bone, etc. We also have what we call "special finds" things that are really cool or that we aren't sure what they are, or maybe we know what it is and it is very fragile.
After each item is bagged the whole Lot (bag it came in from the field) is divided out & numbered. Each group of items gets a number that starts with BA13A (al Baleed, 2013, Season A) after that it gets the number of the bag it was in (the lot number) and finally the type is noted. So bone ends up looking like this: BA13A.24.B. Once you see that number it tells you many things about that object or group of objects. Each bag is also labeled with a unique number that tells you where it came from (literally) in the field, we call this the Locus Number. It would be something like 1.R.2 (Area 1, Unit R, Locus 2.) You may have heard Unit referred to as square and Locus as layer, depends on where you come from and when you went to school. ;-)Now that we have a bag of bones that are labeled they also have to be recorded in the database. Krista, Kevin (a friend from home), and Brian designed the database and the forms we all use. Now that the info is all recorded digitally (on an iPad) that bag of bones is ready for storage. In the future anyone interested in the bones can look at the database and see a picture of them, search the database and find all the bones or simply walk to the box in storage that says "Bones".
There is a bit more to this but you get the idea and I don't want to bore you. One thing to note is that pottery/ceramics (there is a difference don't get an archaeologist started on what that is, you'll be sorry) and any lithic (chert/flint--see above argument) materials are being analyzed here in the lab. Sarah is handling ceramics and Lamya is handling lithics. Every piece found is being looked at by them and they decide if they want to individually photograph it, draw it, give it a special number or location so they can find it again. There is a special area of the lab for them to use for these purposes.Once artifacts have gone through this entire process they are stored in boxes, eventually these will go to the museum with detailed notes as to which unique numbers live inside.
The other parts of the lab are used for computer areas, storage areas, and supply storage areas. It's a big room but with five or more of us in here at once it gets a little chaotic. I end up getting most of my work done between 630-1030 (tea break) & 1100-130. After lunch, which is usually from 200-300, we have a meeting and rehash of the days events & we plan for the next day. By 430-500 we sort of divide off. I go play tennis, some people work in the lab, some swim, some relax. Dinner is around 800 PM then we are almost all in bed by 1000 since we are working by 630 AM.
You can see why some people love the lab (its inside being the biggest selling point,) it is organized and requires thought, detail, and multitasking--all things I love. You can also see why people hate the lab... for the same reasons mentioned above. ;-)
Speaking of the lab, we are working on a project to fund the lab with supplies not provided for us here or from our Univeristies at home. Some things are software related, some are drawing tools, some are items to make life easier in the lab (like cloth instead of plastic bags.) If you'd like to learn more visit:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/al-baleed-let-s-save-the-land-of-frankincense/x/3601610
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