Digs: Laboratory Processing and Report Writing
While the general public thinks of archaeologists as "diggers," excavation is only the data recovery portion of our work.
More time is spent in the laboratory processing the artifacts recovered, cataloging, entering into computer databases, and
writing up final reports for publications. FOSA provides volunteer opportunities for laboratory and report-writing
participation; and has also established and maintains a fund for radiocarbon dating of artifacts.
Processing
If you take a close look at the last 4 "Excavation" photos, you'll see small brown paper bags near the
excavators. These contain the artifacts excavated, and are the starting point for the Processing function.
Recorded on the bags are things such as the date, site, grid, grid-quadrant, and depth that the artifact(s) were recovered
from. Arguably, these are the most important things that are taken from a site, pending laboratory analysis.
Most Processing activities are the same regardless of where they're done. Michigan State University
maintains a site where these steps are described in some detail; you can access that site by clicking
Michigan State University.
Additional information can be found by checking the
Volunteer Opportunities:
Lab Work page on this web site.
While the laboratory tasks are important, where historic sites are involved there's one research aspect
that can be overlooked: interviewing people knowledgable in the area, such as members of local historical
societies, and researching printed material such as newspapers, books, journals, and so forth.
One of the books in the
Reference Books page of
this web site,
History Matters by James N. Littlefield, describes many instances of uncovering the story
of objects unearthed on excavations by students in East Lyme, CT by making use of this resource. Indeed, many of
the books on that page are taken from the Article Reprints pages' bibliographies of this web site. These
constitute an invaluable research aid.
This is an important - indeed critical - activity in helping us understand what happened at that site. And
it all starts with those small brown paper bags.
Report Writing and Presentation
While there are many potential venues for these, the documentation and storage of sites' results are generally kept in
the Connecticut Archaeological Center's archives. And while all artifacts legally belong to the property owner, they are
often donated to the CAC and/or to town historical organizations or other museums.
Presentation, however, can be done in any number of places, not least of which is at the FOSA Annual Meetings and at
various open-house events where FOSA is invited to have a display.
The photographs on clicking the "Next" button above are taken from several such annual meetings
and displays. In addition, click
Lab Workshop
for additional photographs taken from a Stable Isotope Workshop for FOSA
members from 2016, given by David Leslie, where various laboratory techniques were discussed and demonstrated.