A little more about work in the field…
Working in the field is a fascinating and exciting part of archaeology. So far I have talked a lot about digging and screening, but I would be remiss if I did not briefly mention a few field tasks besides excavation.
Archaeologists often perform pedestrian survey (imagine lining up with your crewmates, walking for miles and miles for days and days in the blazing sun or freezing rain or dense brush, and staring down looking for artifacts on the ground surface. Sometimes you stop to map a lithic scatter or an historic tin can dump…That is pedestrian survey).
Sometimes in the field we look below the ground surface using remote sensing. Some kinds of instruments, like a magnetometer, a gradiometer, or ground-penetrating radar, for example, can sense anomalies under the ground that might signal archaeological remains.
Aerial survey is another non-invasive technique very useful in archaeology. This would include technologies like aerial photography, drones, LiDAR, and lasers.
Archaeologists also create maps in the field, either with something fancy like engineering survey equipment, or with their good old-fashioned compass and tape measure.
And archaeologists working in the field do the important job of monitoring construction work to make sure no archaeological sites are harmed during the course of road work or building construction.
Beyond the field…
After the field work is done, the fun doesn’t stop! An important aspect of archaeology happens in the lab where we clean and analyze artifacts. At the Fort Vancouver archaeology lab we process all the artifacts that are excavated at the fort, and occasionally artifacts from other sites. We either dry brush or wet wash artifacts depending on the material they are made from.
Then for analysis, we do research to figure out as best we can exactly what the artifact is, when it was made, who might have used it, and what it might have been used for. Sometimes we have enough pieces of a broken artifact to put much of it back together.
During our Fort Vancouver field school excavations in the summer of 2017 we collected over 32,000 artifacts! That’s a lot of artifacts to clean and analyze. We couldn’t do it without a wonderful crew of volunteers to help us. (Interested in volunteering in the Fort Vancouver archaeology lab? Email me or call the Fort Vancouver lab at 360-816-6250 for more information! No experience is necessary, and we train our volunteers thoroughly.)
After analysis of artifacts and field notes is done, writing reports about our work comprises a crucial phase of the archaeological process. This is how we share our work with other archaeologists, researchers in other disciplines, and the public. Without writing about and sharing our work, there would be no purpose in doing archaeology.
Archaeologists write technical reports for CRM clients and for the organizations they work for. They write articles for academic journals and for presentations at conferences. Archaeologists also write magazine articles and books and hold lectures meant for audiences of non-archaeologists. We want everyone to love archaeology and understand its importance as much as we do, so presenting material in popular formats makes archaeology accessible to everyone. We also write blogs! If you are enjoying this blog, please share it!
If you have any further questions about archaeology, find my contact information on the Contact Me page and send me an email!
In upcoming posts I will move on to the history of my archaeological site, the first Fort Vancouver. Have you ever wondered: What is the deal with Fort Vancouver? Does HBC stand for Harveys Bristol Cream? Was The Revenant based on reality?! Find out over the coming months!