Finishing Up Field School

August 16, 2018

Hello again friends! Shelby here with the latest from the 2018 Field School. We are back at Western Michigan University and getting a head start on our lab work that will take the rest of the year. Our lab work is tedious, but it is so important that it’s done right. This year, we have an extra component to our lab work, we have four flotation samples; one from last year and three from this field season. See Andrea’s blog for more about that process.

The family wearing our matching shirts graciously given to us by Neil. 

As for being back in Kalamazoo, it is definitely weird being at the school, but doing the same things we had been doing in the field. We have all spent so much time with each other for the last five weeks, that it is hard not going to bed with roommates, eating as a community, or just overall spending every waking moment together. To think that we only have a day and a half left together is actually a weird thought and one I didn’t anticipate having at all, let alone so soon. I never thought that I would be saying this, but I am going to miss everyone here so very much. We drive each other completely nuts, but in the end we are a family and a part of a legacy.

Lab work in the field was time consuming, yet easy. We washed all of the artifacts as they came in from the field; minus iron because, you know, rust. Sorting came next as the artifacts were dry. We were pretty fortunate that almost all of the sorting got done from the comfort of the stables and that we really didn’t have too much to do back at the WMU lab; that isn’t to say that these last few days are being spent twiddling our thumbs. We are slowly and surely checking off the items of a very extensive to do list that is forever getting longer.

What are we doing in lab, you ask? Simply put, a lot. We finished sorting the artifacts by type and accession number. This makes it so much easier during inventory, because we have to count and weigh every artifact with others of its type; for example: 16 white seed beads weighing in at 6 grams. We are also digitizing the notes we painstakingly wrote throughout the excavations. This means retyping everything, word for word, in a template. We started our inventory process with the artifacts uncovered at our STP (Shovel Test Pit) site from the beginning of the season. So far, we have logged over 160 entries and counting! We are also finishing the last of our blogs for the field season and reorganizing everything for next season.

Independent Study is an opportunity for each field school student to earn 1 to 4 credits; furthering their involvement in the project. Students learn lab skills in an academic environment that will propel them in their careers as archaeologists. Along with learning key identifiers for various artifacts, we also learn the history behind them. We attempt to identify specific objects based on the fragments we uncover. To do this, we consult a wide array of texts and research articles from other like sites. We often reference Fort Michilimackinac’s uncovered artifacts, since Fort St. Joseph often reveals similar artifacts.

Looking back on this experience as a whole, I can honestly say that I am so glad that I did this field school. The staff is beyond knowledgeable and they make it a great learning environment. We learned the steps required to complete an excavation and we got a taste of what happens when things go right and when things go wrong. We were given firsthand experience of some of the stresses of archaeology and why it is paramount that things are done properly and notes are detailed. Having done this field school, I would be confident enough to go out into the field tomorrow and begin again.