At the Center for Historic and Military Archaeology, Heidelberg University Although working in the field is a major component of archaeology, lab work comprises the majority of an archaeologist’s time. The lab is where everything comes together, be it analysis, background research, or actual artifact refitting. There are a multitude of tasks done in the […]
Read full post »Field Reports for 2015
Feature Discovery and Identification, Recording, and Excavation
Thursday, July 2, 2015
One of the many things that take place during our field school is the excavation, discovery, identification and recording of features. Features are identified during the course of excavation at Johnson’s Island Civil War Prison. A feature is an identifiable variation or change in the soil involving color, composition or texture. These can be identified […]
Read full post »The Glass of Johnson’s Island
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
While digging in the majority of our units, the most obvious artifacts are typically pieces of glass, both large and small. The sheen of the glass in the sunlight illuminates it and separates it from the rest of the soil. Whether the color of the glass is dark green, amber, light green, or clear when […]
Read full post »How to Open and Set Up New Units for Excavation
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Director’s Note: Every unit we open up is tied to the overall site grid that was established back in 1989. There are several brass plate permanent datum points cemented into the ground. From these we place stakes along the grid in the areas we wish to investigate. As noted, we are set up to explore […]
Read full post »FS-ing Artifacts at Johnson’s Island
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
As we excavate, part of our job is to screen buckets of soil for artifacts. Normally, the artifacts we find are set off to the side in trays to be counted and bagged at the end of the day. However, if something is unique or especially nice, it is FS’d. FS stands for “Field Specimenâ€, […]
Read full post »Summary of Research Design for 2015
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
This season, our intention is to revisit the Prison Hospital, Block 6. In previous years (2006-2009), we had excavated the majority of the main hospital building, but did not investigate the extension on the northern end. We decided to focus on that extension for part of this season’s work. We are particularly interested in determining […]
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