Lab Work

Lab Work at Crow Canyon

This figure diagrams the way that artifacts and samples are processed in the laboratory at Crow Canyon and highlights the specific sequence that is followed. It can take up to four to six years to completely process all the artifacts from a single excavation project! (One project can generate several hundred thousand artifacts!)

During the three weeks of HSFS, students participated in a variety of lab activities (circled in red) including sorting, artifact washing, cataloging, data entry, dendrochronology (tree ring dating), ceramic analysis, and lithic (chipped stone) analysis. Pfew! Oh, and they even had to pass the cumulative exam at the end!

Dendrochronology

Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, is the study and analysis of wood samples from archaeological sites. Trees put on a new growth ring each year, and the thickness of the ring varies based on many factors (but especially precipitation). Scientists have established a chronology based on these different patterns of thin and thick rings that can be used to date a tree sample from an archaeological site. Dendrochronology can tell you the exact year that tree was cut down!

Pottery Analysis

The ancestral Pueblo people manufactured pottery vessels in their own communities, and they imported pottery from other communities and regions. Over time and across space, pottery changed in many of its features, including the raw materials from which it was made, the shapes of vessels, and the styles of painted designs. This, coupled with the fact that fired clay is quite durable, makes pottery an extremely valuable source of information for archaeologists. Pottery is an important tool in the dating of ancient Pueblo sites, and it can provide insights into a wide variety of other topics of interest to researchers - for example, population size, length of site occupation, patterns of trade, the evolution of technological skill, and the kinds of activities that took place in specific locations within sites.*

Chipped Stone Analysis

Identification of the materials used for chipped-stone tools, ground-stone tools, and stone ornaments is an important part of artifact analysis. Raw materials for tools and ornaments were obtained either directly from natural sources or through trade. By studying the sources of raw materials vis-a-vis the sites where artifacts of those materials are recovered, we gain valuable insight into interaction networks and the organization of stone-artifact production.*

Scrub those artifacts!	Storage shelves in the curation room.	Zach and Claire entering data.
Erin works with Talia and Nikki.	Ariel and Nikki work on cataloging.	Julia and Tom sort artifacts.

Lab description excerpted from The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center Lab Manual available online here.