Excavations are only part of the story of the operations of an archaeological excavation. A large portion of the work that goes into an archaeological project is actually spent in the laboratory analyzing artifacts and figuring out what they can tell us about the past.
Work in the laboratory includes bagging and keeping track of all artifacts, washing, labeling, mending, and cataloguing them, and entering all of the notations into a database. Each is also researched in order to discern as much information about it as possible, including what its purpose and function were, where it was made, how it arrived at the site, when it was made, and who made it. Not all of this information is accessible for every artifact, but every small bit of information that can be gained from artifact analysis provides more information about the overall story of the site.
At New Philadelphia, there is a field lab and the main lab. During the first portion of the field school, while students excavate at the site, they also rotate through the field laboratory to learn how to properly keep track of artifact bags, as well as how to wash and identify artifacts.
The main laboratory portion of the field school is held in the second portion of the summer at the Illinois State Museum's Research and Collections Center. There the students learn how to further identify and catalog artifacts, as well as how to prepare them for curation and storage.
To learn more about the specific processes and procedures of each laboratory setting, click on the tabs in the blue side bar.
