We are looking for the few, the dedicated, the untiring, for a special short season in 2014. There are a few places left if you would like to join the team: July 28 – August 18, 2014.
Don’t delay, and don’t forget that the ASOR grant applications are due soon (Feb. 15). They can be found at: http://www.asor.org/fellowships/excavation.html
Contact Yorke Rowan (ymrowan@uchicago.edu) or Morag Kersel (mkersel@depaul.edu) for more information.
Although we bring back bucketsful of pottery from the site to wash at camp, most of it ends up returning to the field.
After the pottery is washed and dried, our pottery expert (Dr. Dina Shalem) examines and sorts each basket. She is looking for diagnostic or indicative sherds. These are pieces of pottery that can help us identify and understand the types of vessels used at Marj Rabba. Diagnostic sherds include: handle pieces, rims, bases, uniquely painted body sherds, or decorated sherds.
Sorting the pottery
For example, a certain piece of rim could be identified as part of a large crater bowl or a smaller cooking vessel, depending on the rim. Or a piece of hula ware, which is a decorated pottery from the North, can tell us about the trade that was occurring between there and Marj Rabba. Combined with other threads of evidence, this pottery will help inform us of the people’s daily actions and interactions.
Hula ware
Once the diagnostic sherds are separated they are counted by part of vessel and features present in order to provide a numerical assessment of the vessels present at the site. Then they are marked with the basket number, locus number, and license number, in that order. (Although if space is lacking only the basket number will be written down since all other numbers can be looked up via basket number.)
Labeled pottery
This is vital, as many of these pieces will be removed from their bags containing this identifying information in order to be drawn or photographed for publication. Including at least the basket number allows each piece to be contextualized and returned to its place.
After processing the diagnostics, the (very large) remainder of non-indicative sherds will be sent back to the field and banished to the pottery graveyard.
Pottery’s final resting place
A Lesson in Proper Troweling Techniques and the Perils of Comfortable Archaeology
Here at Marj Rabba, we hold ourselves to a high standard, even when it isn’t easy. For example, no matter how hot it gets, we always maintain proper troweling technique and excavation posture. This means: carefully (but quickly, and also precisely) scraping the edge of the trowel across the excavation site, evenly lowering the entire locus from the top rather than chopping into it from the side, and crouching on our toes or standing and bent over while excavating and sweeping.
The right way to trowel
The wrong way to trowel
M. demonstrates the RIGHT way to trowel C. demonstrates the WRONG way to trowel* * these demonstrations are staged. No archaeology was harmed in the making of this blog
The best finds, like this artifact, are found in situ, and then carefully excavated around until the entire locus is low enough that the artifact can be seen and removed. That way, we can observe everything else that was going on in the area at that time, and come away with a really good understanding of the site.
Why do we always squat, crouch or stand when excavating, rather than the traditionally more comfortable poses of sitting or lying down? There are two reasons. One, most importantly, is that a person who is comfortable is more likely to slow down and dig in one place than a
A. demonstrates the wrong way to excavate
person whose knees are constantly reminding them to move. A person who is comfortable may remain in one place for hours, loathe to shift to a new area or better position, because where they are is just so comfortable. This is how unwanted pits form and excavators miss evidence. Putting our comfort ahead of the site is just not cool.
The other reason is scorpions.
Never give them an easy target.
The Galilee Prehistory Project 