In the main laboratory for the New Philadelphia project, which is in the Illinois State Museum's Research and Collections Center, the main portion of the processing of artifacts begins. Students are taught how to further identity each artifact and to differentiate between all the diferent types of designs, decorations, and manufacturing processes that make each artifact different from the others.

Students are then taught how to catalog artifacts, and using a log sheet and a code system where each code represents a particular aspect of the artifact, each object is meticulously analyzed and documented. This cataloguing is without a doubt the process that takes the greatest amount of time in the main laboratory, as it requires the students to learn a great deal of information about each type of artifact.

Once each artifact is catalogued, each artifact must be labeled individually. Using felt-tip pens and a sealant, each artifact is labeled with the indivual artifact number it was given during the cataloguing process. The next step is to "mend," or put back together, as many artifacts as possible. This process of glueing vessels back together allows archaeologists to get more informaitno out the artifact assemblage. More can be discovered about a gorup of people if it is possible to know that they were buying medicines or cosmetics from a nearby town, as opposed to only knowing that they were buying glass bottles of something, which may be all the information it is possible to get from a pile of glass shards.

All of the catalog sheets must also be entered into our main artifact database. To learn more about all the artifacts that have been fond at New Philadelphia, please look through our database!

While at the Research and Collections Center, students also work with many staff members to analyze any prehistoric remains that may have been found at the New Philadelphia site, to sort through and identify and plant remains that have been found in soil samples, and to identify the animal remains as specifically as possible. Knowing what types of plants and animal remains are found and the site allows archaeologists to know what the diet of the inhabitants of the town may have been like.