Over the years a number of specialists come to site to do research on material related to the excavation. As such, the number of labs needed has exponentially increased. This year we have five dedicated labs for eleven specialist areas. These past few days we have been arranging and rearranging these, measuring them up for bespoke desks and storage units. These new facilities will greatly increase the number of specialists that can work in tandem, and importantly, provide the much needed storage for the increasing number of finds. These should be ready and in within two weeks, so check back for the grand unveiling.
As the labs are completed the Flotation and Wet Sieving area has slowly been reassembled. This year we are privileged to have a designated Flotation expert, Canadian Charlene Murphy. We are determined to add hundreds samples to the ever growing litreage count for Flotation.
In 2012 a custom-built wet sieving tank was built to process the thousands of litres of context which come off site throughout the two month season. As we process every context from the trenches, wet sieving is an important process which every dig member will get to experience in the coming weeks. Many small finds have been found this way such as beads and lithics which would have otherwise been discarded.
Setting up the labs requires adjusting layout of each room to suit everyone’s needs. In this lab, the Chipped Stone, Ground Stone and Zooarcheology specialists will have their samples at hand in the crates behind them.
Flotation volunteers busy creating an organised workplace.
The Wet Sieving tank has been filled. It is time to get wet!
Andy and Doug discussing lab preparation.
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