May 9th 2019 - A Day in the Lab

All students met in the classroom today, relieved that we didn't have to endure the long walk to the McKenzie Creek camp again, but excited to start work in the lab. Firstly, while waiting for all students to arrive, we unloaded artifacts and past student projects about the McKenzie Creek camp from the lab storage room onto a few of our classroom tables to sort through later.

Boxes of artifacts and student projects associated with McKenzie Creek Camp from past seasons.

Once everyone got to the lab, Bob talked about a very important topic in archaeology, and many other fields. He provided a worksheet and explanation of the archaeology field school sexual harassment policy. We were informed of the history of sexual harassment in archaeology, what is defined as sexual harassment, and multiple people to contact if we ever wanted to report an incident. A zero tolerance policy was also applied for any other type of harassment in the work place such as discrimination against ethnicity, disabilities or religion. After that very important topic was covered, we moved on to assigning projects to students who did not yet have one.
Multiple project ideas were proposed by Bob and other students, some more creative than others, such as an interpretive dance or play. Those ideas were dismissed after considering the logistics of them, but others were picked up by students. Some were assigned specific artifact research, where they will find out as much information as they can about excavated artifacts, and another student will be sorting and classifying tableware found from the site. Bob also mentioned that the "absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence" when referring to items that have yet been discovered, but are presumed to have been in the McKenzie Creek camp during the time period being studied, such as eating utensils. Some projects will require more research in the field than others, but the time spent on each should be approximately equal, making it fair for all students. In a week or two, there will be a full page accessible through the right sidebar of the blog with the students and the projects they will be working on, and each will have a few sentences describing the goal of the project.
After everyone was assigned a project, Bob discussed the possibility of visitors coming to see our work at the McKenzie Creek camp. Some requests have been made by community members and school groups to see our site, which are happily accepted if, for the most part, the groups can get to the site on their own. If you are an archaeologist, historian or have any interest in the Japanese history in the LSCR and are from the lower mainland, you can message Bob on twitter (@bobmuckle) to see if you would be able to come for a site visit.
After a half-hour lunch break, where some students decided to soak up the sun rays outside, we all gathered back in the classroom to discuss archeology lingo and unpack some boxes that were taken out of storage to put on display.
All students were given a worksheet with words and abbreviations that we should be familiar with before we start excavations. General terms such as prehistoric archaeology versus historic archaeology were discussed, terms such as provenience, meaning the precise three-dimensional location of an object, and the acronym DBS, standing for depth below surface. I am sure by the end of next week, all students will be comfortable using the words given to us.
Once the quick vocabulary lesson was over, all students began to unpack boxes full of beer bottles, ceramic dishes and smaller containers used for creams and skin care.

Students unpacking bottles from a box.

Once most items were unpacked onto tables, a few students and the project director started to neatly display them in the glass display case outside of the classroom.

Bob and a student displaying items outside of the classroom.

Most bottles and dishes were placed in the display case outside, but unfortunately we ran out of time to go through other artifacts such as shoes and metals, so we will be unpacking and examining those in another lab period.

On Monday we will be in the field clearing moss and fallen branches off paths and features so we can get easier access to the items we are studying in the coming weeks. The next blog post will be Monday evening.