Asha Law
This field school was really fun, highly motivating and we learned so much that’s really relevant to archeology, as a program and as a career. Specifically, I think the largest applicable things would be survey (and mapping), excavation and artifact processing. It has allowed me a far more in-depth understanding of topics simply because I’ve had this hands-on experience, instead of just relying on the theory of classes and research.
At our first site, BcGn-17, my group (the Rats) started learning survey first. James gave us a tutorial on how to use a theodolite, a tool that helps document findable points in relation to where the theodolite sits, and then set us loose (with help) on a practice field of flags that represent where artifacts had been found during a controlled surface pickup (a pedestrian survey where you walk in lines looking at the ground for artifacts). We used a stadia rod to track the flags, as they were too low for the theodolite to see on its own, and then once we had all of the coordinates in relation to our datum, and plotted out where we would put 1m by 1m test units if the practice site was real. We also used the stadia rod to document elevation in comparison to the theodolite, and compiled all of those (with some math and spreadsheets courtesy of the Arch Centre’s laptop’s LibreOffice – basically off brand excel spreadsheet haha) to make a map of the site on grid paper. It was really cool to see the finished product of that map because it gave a bird’s eye view of the field and a wider perspective on the project we had been working on!
After our round of survey, we were in charge of helping to excavate with the other groups while they took their turns doing their practice survey. At BcGn-17 the Rats mostly worked on OA2, which was working on revealing the beginning of a drainage system that had been discovered in earlier excavations. We were trying to uncover it so that we could learn more about its context, i.e. what was it there for, and there was proof that something was incorporated into it, which we determined to most likely be a root cellar (named The Eminence)! We cleared away the tarp left from a previous excavation and cleaned up the loose dirt on the drain feature a little, and then it was time to leave it to the people staying on site, and for us to begin a new site at BcGn-15! (Not technically new-new, as it has been excavated before, but new to us!)
BcGn-15 was really different from the first site, surrounded by forest and brush, which made for a very different digging experience. This was also impacted by the fact that while both sites had been investigated already, the test units on BcGn-15 were entirely fresh, whereas the ones on BcGn-17 had already been excavated and were a little looser. Zenya, Matie and I opened OA1 in BcGn-15, though Matie and Julie went off to excavate OA4, a midden that had a lot of really intact artifacts. Zenya and I discovered that OA1 (which we named Marie Antoinette on a particularly hot day when we felt silly) was also some kind of midden, a place where the people who lived there likely threw household junk. We found a ton of stuff on the first couple layers, then by the time we reached subsoil (30-35cm deep) we stopped finding artifacts and instead found a stain in the dirt that could be man made, and named it Feature 2! We cross sectioned the feature, which meant troweling away a pocket of the soil so that we could see and document the side profile of the feature. We did not find any artifacts or proof of structure inside it, just the difference of 2 soils. The discolouration of the feature was caused by the soils being different, where the feature was gravel, the rest of our unit was far more clayey, making the feature a gravel lens.
Artifact processing takes place in the Archeology Centre, which is an awesome log cabin on East Bank. It’s super cute and the inside is incredibly cozy, which makes it great for the time spent inside, washing and sorting artifacts. There was a ton to get through, especially from BcGn-15, which had all the midden units filled with old household waste. Both tasks were super soothing in very different ways. Washing artifacts includes you, a buddy, a toothbrush, a sieve and a bucket of water. All you need to do is scrub the artifacts gently until they’re clean, set them in a labeled tray and leave them to dry, it’s the kind of mindless work that we could do with music and chatting going on as well. It was really fun to just chat with people interested in similar things with someone occasionally piping up about an especially cool artifact they just washed. Sorting artifacts includes taking the dried artifacts, sorting them into bags by material, logging how many there are in each bag and where they came from. It’s a quieter task, because people need to focus on counting, but it’s meditative and soothing.
Despite all these different things feeling so different, they all tied in together to show the kind of system that archeological dig sites tend to run on, and it was incredible to see and participate in it first hand. Everything I did, saw and learned during this course was super cool and the experience is one that I think will stick with me for a while. 🙂
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