The Amak Site dig may be over for the year but the lab work continues. In archaeology the general rule of thumb is that for every hour in the field there is 2 hours in the lab. And if you include writing up the results of the dig into a book or some sort of publication then you better count on even more hours of work out of the field. Lab work and analysis is what I do all winter at the museum. And now it begins.
Not that lab work is all drudgery - some of the most exciting discoveries are made in the lab. In fact, yesterday when we were cleaning the artifacts I was shocked to see what looks like a tiny Arctic Small Tool Tradition end scraper that I never saw in the field because someone just assumed it was a flake. Arctic Small Tool Tradition peoples never made it to Kodiak but we do find the occasional tool. This one is made of basalt, a type of rock not found on Kodiak, and was probably picked or brought from the Alaska Peninsula where Arctic Small Tool Tradition peoples did live.
In the lab, the first task is to clean and catalogue all the artifacts and samples we brought back from the site. Each sample and artifact is in a bag with all of the provinience information written on the outside. Thus we know where the piece came from (KOD 1053 the Amak Site), and more importantly the grid square and level where it was found. We also know the initials of the particular excavator who found it and the date - this latter information is important if I need to refer back to my notes and jog my memory about what was going on that particular day in that particular area of the site. All of this information goes into a catalogue and each artifact is affixed with a tiny paper catalogue number that refers back to the catalogue. For all time all anyone has to do is look up the number in a catalogue and they will know who found it, when and where it was found.
During analysis we can use the catalogue to see if there are activity areas on the site where we found many more of particular types of tools. What activities took place in a particular structure we excavated? Or we can check and see how the types and frequencies of tools changed between levels, or even, how the site compares statistically with other sites around Womens Bay. Do my impressions about what we found during excavation hold up to the cold light of statistical analysis?
Another task that we do right away on getting back from the field is drying out all the samples. We also pick out particular charcoal samples from the features and levels we want to radiocarbon date. We pick out the individual grains and chunks of charcoal and sent them off to a lab in Florida where they do radiocarbon analysis. In a few months they send back the results of their analysis and we know within a few hundred years when the tree or shrub that supplied the charcoal died. We will have a better idea of how old everything is in the site.
The lab work and Analysis begins! Patrick
1 comment:
yes the petroglyphs are in modern time filled in with red paint to be seen, by permission from the County Administrative Boards or County Museum. The petroglyphs in sweden are by some people thought to have been painted but there is no evidence of paint found on them. pictographs here on the other hand, are in prehistoric times painted with red (probably red ochre) and are still visible. there are restaurations being done of the petroglyphs, how often i guess depends on the extent of deterioration and weathering etc at each site. these last two sites on my blog could need some refilling in my opinion. - Jenny
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