Thursday 13 June 2013

June 13 2013 - The Joy of Site Inventory Forms.

Today we began with Bob continuing an overview of some archaeology basics. We discussed the various kinds and methods of archaeological survey. We learned that in British Columbia archaeological sites are often discovered by looking for changes in vegetation, looking at cuts in embankments, cultural depressions (holes left from houses, cooking pits, fire pits, and storage pits), and lithic scatters (stone flakes left as waste after making a stone tool). We also covered sampling strategies in archaeological survey; excavating by arbitrary and natural level; and recording provenience by depth below surface and depth below datum.

Natural or arbitrary, that is the question.


Most of the late morning and afternoon was spent on reviewing how to complete archaeological site inventory forms. This included such things as being able to locate sites on map using latitude and longitude (using the map instead of gps) and the UTM method; the importance of being able to describe the location of sites on 1:50,000 scale maps and accurately describing how to access a site; and using contour intervals to determine elevation. We learned how to classify and describe archaeological sites, and the essential things to include on a sketch map of sites (eg. north arrow, bar scale, site boundaries; features).

Northing and Easting is harder than it sounds.


Learning the Borden Number system.


Contours and headaches.


A location somewhere along the 49th parallel.

After the formal part of the day,  some students stayed in the lab, continuing work on their projects. For example,  Richard continued working on the analysis of cultural material in  level bags; Wendy took some more footage for the documentary she is working on; Nathan continued using the internet to try to narrow down the dates of some artifacts;  Erinn continued with bottle classification and Kelsey did some more line drawings; and Caitlin continued working on her study of cultural remains from the area that might be garden.

The class letting it all sink.


Kelsey enjoying some line drawing.


Richard meticulously cleaning the contents of level bags.



Caitlin's hard work.



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