Anthropology 5310: Archaeology Lab Techniques

Fall 2007

Professor : Dr. Bonnie Pitblado (my last name is pronounced with a long “a” sound)
Office : Old Main 245F Phone : 797 – 1496 E-mail : bonnie.pitblado@usu.edu
Office hours : Tues. 9:00 – 10:30 a.m.; Friday 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. (or by appointment)

Laboratory/Teaching Assistant : James Meservy Phone : 435-881-9907

E-mail : serv_dawg@yahoo.com

Course description:

Anthropology 5310 is a unique course in the USU Anthropology program in that it offers students hands-on experience working with real archaeological collections in a lab setting. This experience is not structured like a traditional class with lectures and associated exercises. Rather, you will work independently on accessioning, analyzing, and interpreting materials collected in the field in summer 2007. You will be exposed to a variety of lab tasks, and you will work in close association with the professor and your lab assistant James Meservy (who completed field school in 2005 and has worked in the archaeology lab ever since).

Your tasks will be drawn primarily from two real, on-going archaeological projects: (1) the test-excavation of site 5GN3418, located in Gunnison County, Colorado, and (2) high-altitude survey of an area centered on the Powderhorn Wilderness, in both Gunnison and Hinsdale Counties, Colorado. Some of you will also be involved in work related to a ten-day field session a smaller group conducted in southeastern Idaho. James will be the “keeper of the list” of lab tasks that need to be completed, and so all of you will coordinate with him at all times. James will assign tasks and when you complete them, he will cross them off our list and assign new tasks. Everyone’s lab work will culminate in helping to create a product: reports on our test-excavation and survey and in some cases, presentations at the Rocky Mountain Anthropology Conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Program learning goals & assessment

The USU Anthropology program has identified learning goals to help guide students through coursework in the discipline. Anthropology 5310 will help you reach two of these goals in particular:

• Becoming familiar with a range of anthropological methods
• Applying methods specific to an anthropological sub-field (archaeology)

The primary means through which I will assess your success in learning about and applying archaeological laboratory methods will be our weekly meetings and one-on-one interaction. In our meetings and through informal interaction in the lab, as well as via your time sheets (which will detail what you’ve been up to in a given week), I will evaluate your mastery of various archaeological methods. I also encourage you to ask me anytime if the relevance of a particular laboratory procedure escapes you. I want you to have a solid grasp of the “big picture”—how your task(s) relate to broader research goals. Your questions will be a key means through which I can assess how well we are meeting the aforementioned Anthropology program goals.

Earning credits

You may earn between one and three Anth 5310 credits this semester, for which you must work 45 hours per credit-unit in the lab over the course of the term. Thus, if you registered for one credit, you will conduct 45 hours of lab work; 2 credits = 90 hours; and 3 credits = 135 hours. In addition to the time you physically spend in the archaeology lab, you may also need to do a modest amount of outside reading and research. Just like homework in any other class, outside reading does not count toward your hourly total for the semester.

Scheduling

This class will be run essentially as an independent study in which you will determine not only the number of credits you wish to earn, but also what your lab schedule will be. Although your work schedule is yours to create, you must provide me with a concrete and regular schedule that you will keep throughout the semester. To the extent possible, you should try to have your hours overlap at least some of James Meservy’s regular lab hours, so that he can answer any questions that may arise as you conduct your work. Again, James is the keeper of the master 5GN3418 and survey project “to do” lists—and those are the projects that will constitute the bulk of our work this term. It is therefore vital that his team members stay in close contact with him.

Grading

There will be no exams or quizzes in this self-directed course, nor will you be required to write extraneous essays or complete irrelevant assignments. Instead, your grade will be based on the following:

• Completion of scheduled hours each week (as recorded on time sheets which must be turned in by our the beginning of our weekly meetings)
• Evidence of supplementary out-of-lab research (we will direct you in conducting this research)—lists of readings completed, specialists contacted, and so on—AS APPROPRIATE (if your tasks don’t require outside research, you needn’t worry about this requirement; I’ll clarify when outside reading is needed)
• Effort, as evidenced in your selection and completion of tasks/projects
• Quality of task execution
• Quality of the section(s) of the report(s) you write
• Attitude

Anthropology 5310: Archaeology Lab Techniques (Fall 2007)

Sample project/task list (working list—this list will increase as we think of more to do!)

Tasks that cross-cut both projects

1. Conduct background research on protohistoric Utes, Archaic, and Paleoindian peoples of the Southern Rocky Mountains

5HN510 Test Excavation

1. Prepare collected artifacts for curation (most of this was done in the field, but a bit does remain and should be a priority)

• Cull objects that should not have been collected (in consultation with Dr. Pitblado and James; don’t throw stuff out without talking to us first)
• Wash artifacts, as appropriate
• Label artifacts using computer-generated, acid-free labels & rhoplex, as appropriate
• Complete Hinsdale County Historical Society tags for collected artifacts (tags must be photocopied on acid-free paper; black Sharpie must be used to complete tags)
• Place labeled artifacts & HCHS tags in clean 2-mm or 4-mm bags (reuse if the field bag is reasonably clean)

1. Check all field data-form fields for accuracy, proper use of codes, completeness, etc.
2. Check that all field data has been entered into an Excel file (James keeps master; no creating columns!)
3. Proofread all entered data against original field data forms
4. Photocopy all unit paperwork on acid-free paper
5. Photocopy Bonnie Pitblado’s and Chris Merriman’s field notebooks on acid-free paper
6. Compile and photocopy yellow student notebooks on acid-free paper
7. Label black and white photographs
8. Label digital photographs as necessary
9. Determine necessary quantity of archival boxes & order them
10. Sort processed collections into archival boxes (different boxes for different materials)
11. Inventory and create inventory labels for each box
12. Analyze chipped stone debitage
13. Analyze chipped stone tools
14. Float sediment collected from two excavated features
15. Pick matrix generated during flotation (for tiny flakes)
16. Pick through vegetation generated during flotation for charcoal, charred (and unburnt) seeds, and other burnt plant matter
17. Assist with testing report write-up (we will assign report sections to individual students, so the final product will be a joint effort and you will all be listed as authors)

High-Altitude Survey of Powderhorn Area

1. Create high-quality digital site maps using GIS or Adobe Illustrator
2. Enter hand-written site forms into the computer (this task is about half-done as of 8/2007)
3. Catalogue collected artifacts using the curation procedure described in excavation task 1
4. Assist in writing the survey site report (again, if we get to this, we will assign report sections to students who will serve as co-authors on the final product)