Excavation
How do archaeologists learn about the Past? Think about how many objects you touch in a day. How many different types of things do you use; clothes, foods, dishes, books? Did you make them, or did you buy them? Are they things you enjoy using, or are they just convenient? The objects we use all have something to say about us, and how we live: what we like, how much money we have, what we think is important. Archaeologists study the objects of everyday life to learn about the lives of people who lived in the past.
How do archaeologists learn about people in the Past from objects? What are the special challenges for archaeologists excavating in a modern city? Join us in the excavation and analysis of objects found in a nineteenth-century San Francisco privy to understand how archaeologists learn about the Past.
Planning
the Excavation
There are a lot of questions to sort out in planning an excavation:
when will the dig happen, what crew and equipment will be required,
what methods of excavation and analysis will be used? 
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Researching the History
One of the foremost questions is ‘Where to dig?' Historical documents
provide the key to which areas in the city might still contain archaeological
deposits that are worth excavating.
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Getting
Started
Many city blocks now look totally different to how they would have
looked 100 years ago. The archaeologist strips back the modern layers
of asphalt or gravel to reveal the historic ground surface and the archaeological
features it contains.
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Excavating
the Feature
In nineteenth-century cities there was often no rubbish collection.
People discarded their rubbish in backyards, disused privies and wells.
Archaeologists carefully excavate these archaeological features to recover
the objects, also called artifacts, and understand how and why people
discarded them.
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Recording
the Feature
In archaeology, the artifacts are only half the story. The other half
is how they were discarded. Were the artifacts in a privy all thrown
in together or over time? Were those at the bottom different to those
at the top? Were they found in layers of ash or sand? Recording the
excavation of the privy in plans, notes and photographs helps tell the
story of how people used the artifacts.
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Washing
& Sorting
Artifacts recovered from the privy are washed and labeled. From the
hundreds of shards and fragments found in the privy, each bottle, plate
or artifact is reconstructed.
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Cataloging
& Photography
Each artifact has information to contribute to the story of the privy.
Information about the artifact's shape, size, decoration and markings
is entered into a database, and photographs are taken.
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Archiving
The questions archaeologists ask about artifacts and the people who
used them can change. Archaeological collections are carefully stored
so that they can be reanalyzed by future archaeologists.
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Telling
the Story
Historical research, artifact information and excavation notes are
pulled together to develop the story about the people who once lived
in the excavation area. Telling the story of an excavation through reports,
books, websites and articles is an important part of archaeology.
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