Hi everybody, this is Cameron coming back to you as the new Fort St. Joseph museum intern. Over the summer I was the field assistant for the project, where I supervised and assisted the field students. But after the short two week break between the field season and the fall semester, I was accepted to continue working for the project, as a liaison between Western and the Fort St. Joseph Museum.
My role is to essentially work as a lab manager at Western, to oversee the work that is being done by independent study students, to promote the project at public outreach events, and to work with the Museum by integrating artifacts into their collection. As many of you know the theme of this year’s field season was curation. And that is the step that we are currently beginning to start. Only a small portion of archaeology is spent in the field recovering artifacts. Most of it is spent on the curation process. We will begin by counting, and weighing artifacts by material type. Then this information will be entered into a digital inventory list, and the artifacts will be organized sequentially in a box, ready to be integrated into the collections back at the Niles History Center.
Two students are returning from the field season for independent study, and I am going to meet with them this week to assign their roles, so we may begin working immediately. They will be assigned to start working with Doctor Nassaney on the artifact inventory. I did this last year as an independent study student, and it will allow them to acquire skills in artifact identification, general lab work, and the curation process. And between independent study and the summer field school, these students will acquire a valuable set of skills that will guide them in their future.
So after we begin our work this week, and the students get acquainted with their new roles. You will be hearing back from one of us again shortly. They will be sharing their new experiences with you, whether it is an update on their progress in the lab, or about a public outreach event. And hopefully we will see some of you at one of these events. We will also be posting pictures from this past field season on facebook, including images of some of our recent discoveries!
So until next time,
Cameron
