It has been, But that's because the
Internet at home is playing up, therefore, I am
communicationless.
Port Arthur was great... Better than great it was Awesome! I got some great digging
experience under my belt now, and some
lab work, and more public archaeology to go on the resume.
We worked on three sites, one near a convict kiln that was reused after the penal settlement closed, one which was used by the boys at Point
Puer, and the site of the old convict
saw pit, that was open in 2005. The
saw pit was my favourite. It was the most exciting in it's finds and in it's
atmosphere. After the convict site closed, it became the rubbish pit for the town of
Canarvon. This made it very artifact rich and we found almost complete bottles, window glass, lamp glass, table crockery and ceramics, fine china, nails, metal
fastenings, broken toys, bones and a skull and I even found a broken plate (
ie, the false teeth kind). I do love this site, and the place! Working everyday with a fantastic view of the
penitentiary.
We also did
all the touristy thing, and I went on a tour of the Isle of the Dead, Point
Puer, and a ghost tour. Plus raid the gift shop every other day. And the free coffee! My
thanks to the Port Arthur Historic Society for that one. It was a godsend every morning.
Communal living was interesting, and I surprised myself with how well I managed to tolerate everyone for. Some were lovely people, and I was sad to leave them as they came from Sydney and Melbourne way. But some... Well. Lets Just say three weeks was around the limit. But the peace of the place and the routine helped to make it work out. And some
memories will be dear to me for many years to come.
The only issue I have is with the whole project was the lack of lab work that was done. We tried to get through it all as much as possible for our digs, but those first few days we were sorting the backlog from 2003. That is not right! This brings to light one of the travesties of archaeology and is
unfortunately perpetuated bu the plethora of archaeology
programs.
The exciting bit is the excavation. The dirt, the tools, the exciting finds, the big rectangular hole in the ground. And that's it the exciting bit. it's the bit that draws the crowds... But
archaeology doesn't stop there, although that's as far as most people think to. The
artifacts found have to be cleaned. Sorted.
Labled. Measured.
Catalogued. This is a long process and can take three times as long as the actual dig did. and while it's not that exciting to the public, it is actually the most
important parts of an
archaeological excavation. This is where the
information comes from! How can we know that meat was
scarce? By the lack of bones found once the excavation is finished! the families were well off. how do we know? Because of the analysis of ceramic fragments have shown that high end table wares were readily
discarded when broken, not repaired, because the large number of pieces show no signs of repair.
This is where the stories are told and it was
absolutely heartbreaking to leave behind the cleaning sorting and
cataloguing of our finds. They wouldn't be done while we were gone. They don't have the
budget for that. Instead they'll sit on the shelves, waiting for next years group of volunteers to come in and pick up where we left off... A back log of 5 years! this is just not good enough. And the problem is that excavation brings the public. That brings the money. Then they have to spend it on sorting, preserving and analysis? Why should they. It's a common attitude amongst places like that and the general public and it needs to be changed! people need to be exposed to the rest of archaeology. They need to understand that the sorting cleaning and analysis is WHY we do archaeology. Time team can
show all the fancy
digging and washing, but until they and similar shows show the rest of the work 'behind the scenes' as it were, we will not change this attitude and years of work will go to waste.
It's an issue that needs
addressing, and hopefully by ranting it here, someone will read it and think a bit more about archaeology and the step after the 'cool' bit.
There's more to talk about, but i feel a bit drained right now.
Labels: Archaeology, Lab work, Port Arthur, Rant
