June 12 2013 - The First of Many Lab Days.

Today was our first day working in the lab since breaking camp. There happen to be several students in the field school who have not taken anthropology or archaeology classes, so Bob spent the morning giving an overview of world prehistory, before focusing on the last 11,000 yrs in British Columbia.

Bob teaching the class the importance of not disturbing possible archaeological sites.

Bob spoke about the origins of the Hominidae and members of the genus Homo. For North America, he highlighted the significance of some of early artifacts found, such as the atlatl and fluted points. We discussed the oldest undisputed site in B.C, located near Fort St. John, "Charlie Lake Cave", a generalized overview of Indigneous lifeways in BC before 5,000 yrs ago and the kinds of evidence left behind; and the lifeways and archaeological evidence for the past 5,000 years.


 Bob also taught us about the British Columbia Heritage Conservation Act, including the conditions under which archaeological sites are protected and the penalties for disturbing archaeological sites without a permit. We learned how it is mostly government that decides where and how archaeology is done in advance of development projects; the general process of cultural resource managment (also known as commercial archaeology, client-based archaeology, or contract archaeology), and that more than 90 percent of archaeology in BC is in advance of development projects.

We also received copies of blank British Columbia Archaeological Site Inventory forms and the lengthy Guide for completing the forms. We will be reviewing the particulars of the forms and guide tomorrow.

Something to go over before tomorrow's class.

After class some students stayed behind to work on their personal projects. Amanda continued to photograph artifacts, Ananda worked on the Facebook page, Nadine took photographs of the students, Richard sorted and recorded level bags, Nathan searched for dates of artifacts on the internet and Stuart worked on the waste audit.

Wendy making sure everything is in order.

Some artifacts, waiting to be photographed or glued back together.

Kathleen and Nathan checking out what is to be dated next.

Amanda working hard.

Jeneva researching some ceramic information for her project.

A photo of Nadine, taking photos.