Artifact Analysis

Students are also working hard at processing the artifacts from different sites that are housed at Foothill College; quite a diverse collection has been acquired through student and teacher surveys and excavations throughout the years.

Currently, students are processing each artifact from a site in the Portola Redwoods, just Northwest of Foothill College, building upon excavations dating back to 1994 The site is believed to be where a solitary man’s cabin once stood, named Iverson Cabin, from approximately the late 1800s/early 1900s. Both the students and professionals are hoping that careful analysis of the material culture left behind at this site will yield some answers into the activity surrounding Iverson Cabin. But first, the artifacts require careful cleaning, sorting, and cataloging as preparation for analysis.

After each artifact is cleaned, through either a wet or dry process, it is then ready to be sorted and assigned a unique identifying catalog number. Each artifact or group of artifacts must be weighed, counted, and placed with like items (material, color, etc.) within the same context, and the applicable diagnostic information copied onto hand-written informational tags to be placed with the artifacts. The required information is then copied from the tags onto each individual bag, and then onto a digital master catalog with its corresponding catalog number, before being stored into labeled boxes. Each step of the process has been undertaken by students. Not only are they preparing the artifact collection to be sent back to Midd Penn (the authority that allows us to excavate the site) for further analysis, but the student research associates are also gaining invaluable hands-on experience and problem-solving skills as they work to identify each artifact and its relevant characteristics, assign it to a specific category or group, and record all pertinent information. The more experienced students who have managed similar projects before also help guide the new volunteers on the project, effectively learning through teaching and cementing their knowledge of archaeological lab methods and practices.