Lab Work in Archaeology
Week four of the spring semester of ANT2100 we learned about lab work in archaeology. We covered the Windover site in Titusville, FL, the site of an 8,000 year old pond burial ground that demonstrates the factors that determine preservation. There were 168 bodies recovered, including 91 preserved brains yielding some of the oldest brain DNA on earth. We discussed Artifact Processing that involves cleaning, sorting, analyzing and cataloging. We conducted a lab where we given the opportunity to get some hands-on experience with Sorting, Analyzing, and Cataloging. We were able to Relative Date some artifacts that were located in the previous weekend's dig at Captain's Corner by comparing manufacture dates of the maker's marks found on the artifacts.
We wrapped up the week back at Captain's Corner, this time having the opportunity to meet the homeowner and his sons. We started our first test hole on the south side of the property, and after making the 1m depth we found absolutely nothing. We moved to the east side of the property, and once again found nothing but very sterile fill. Our third and final test hole was near the west side of the front of the house. Immediately upon cutting off the sod layer, we located a piece of ceramic laying on the surface. A little deeper and we started locating charcoal, nails, and shell. Just down from that we located what may have been bricks used in a fireplace or fire ring as they were obviously subjected to high heat. The neighboring test hole located a nickle from the 1880's and a .22 caliber case and bullet that may date to the 1880's as well. Once again, it was a beautiful weekend to work at the site.
The random stuff you find while sorting and analyzing in the lab (modern, broken headlight lens).
These are the two articles that I reviewed for this assignment:
How Archaeologists Uncover History With Trees
Nash, S. (2017, November 8) How Archaeologists Uncover History With Trees https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/tree-ring-dating-mesa-verde/
The author of his article is an archaeologist at the Denver Museum of natural science and has studied dendrochronology or tree-ring-dating. He begins the article by describing how a tree that was cut down to repair a building 800 years ago can be instrumental in piecing together a timeline for how and when a settlement was constructed. Archaeologists are able tell when a settlement was constructed and when any repairs or upgrades to the buildings stopped. An astronomer in the 1920's was the first to use the tree rings at Mesa Verde when he was trying to locate a specific solar event, and instead was able to determine that a major drought may have caused the local people to abandon the area around 1290.
I found it particularly interesting that the Mesa Verde site of the Puebloans discussed in this article was not discovered by archeologists, instead it was first located by two cowboys in the 1880's. And, it took the research of an astronomer to discover the possible reason for the sites abandonment. Dendrochronology seems to be a very tedious study, having to locate and find a general source of the trees used hundreds of years ago to compare the ring data against essentially working backwards in time. I find it amazing that just the Mesa Veda National Park contains more than 4500 archeological sites spanning a thousand years of occupation and use.
What a Shipwreck’s Tree Rings Reveal
Duivenvoorde, W., Daly, A., Delmas, M. (2022, January 6) What a Shipwreck’s Tree Rings Reveal https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/shipwreck-tree-rings/
This article discusses how the tree rings in the lumber used to build a ship sunk in 1629 can reveal how these ships were built. The vessel in this article is the Batavia, owned and operated by the Dutch East India Co. that sank off the west coast of Australia after running aground on its maiden voyage to Asia. The wreck was located in the 1960's and excavated in the 1970's. The stern section was recovered and is now the only portion of any EIC ship raised from the sea floor and preserved. Using the rings in the lumber used to construct the ship, it has been discovered that the lumber for the hull was sourced from North Germany and the Baltics but the finishing lumber was sourced from Lower Germany.
I found it interesting that a lot of information is know about the ship, her construction, and her demise. But it took analyzing tree rings in a sunken ship to understand where and how the Dutch were sourcing their ship building lumber, since no record of this is available from the 1600's. I was intrigued with this article since I just watched a documentary a couple of weeks ago about sinking of the Batavia and how 340 survivors made it safely to shore (40 drowned), only for their group to fall into total anarchy when more that 120 men, women and children were brutally murders by their own party. The documentary also showed an exact replica of the Batavia that is currently moored in the Netherlands.
Historical and Geospatial Referencing
The Kenilworth Lodge in Sebring, FL
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