Back to WMU

          Hello everyone, it's Morgan again! With our work officially done for the season in Niles, Michigan and all of our units back filled, we are back at Western Michigan University. As a result, I am here to tell you all about our first day back on campus after spending almost two months in Niles. Yesterday our activities consisted mostly of lab work and some organizing, trying to square away all of the work we have accomplished.

The archaeology lab at Western.

We started in the morning at 9am trying to organize our lab located on WMU's campus. The organizational process involved taking inventory, sorting binders and pamphlets, and putting supplies in their proper places. Once our work space was cleared we were able to spend the remainder of the morning cleaning and sorting the artifacts that did not get completed in Niles as well as catching up on paperwork.

Having some fun on our
final day in the field.

A quick lunch break in the afternoon was spent working on a puzzle with Erika and we spent the rest of the day catching up on the pile of paperwork completed while excavating our unit. Our paperwork includes maps, soil descriptions, artifact contents, recorded depths, recovery information, techniques used, and any observations we may have noticed. We also included a unit summary at the end of our notes that talked about the unit excavation, basic soil composition, and cultural materials. Unit excavation talked about the techniques we used to excavate- like shovel skimming, wet screening, and troweling. Then basic soil excavation was a summary of the soil found in the alluvium, plow zone, and occupation zone. Lastly, cultural materials talked about any artifacts that we found such as hinges, rosary beads, chains, gun parts, and so many more. Now that we finally have some time on our hands we have the chance to go back through all of our notes and make any changes needed. Those that were already done editing their notes began the process of digitizing the notes so we have copies for the future.

Digitizing field notes!

Throughout the whole process of organizing our notes, we noticed our growth not only as students but also as archaeologists. Our mistakes became fewer over the course of the past two months as we learned from our mistakes and improved. Overall, the experience my fellow archaeology students and I have gained at Fort St. Joseph has by far been the best experience in advancing our college education in archaeology. With only two more days left before we return to our normal routine, we intend to make the best of it and learn as much as we can.