By Lotte Govaerts
(This post was originally published on the Rogers Archaeology Lab blog on January 02, 2020. You can see the original post archived here.)
This is the second part of an update discussing the various projects we’ve been working on over the past few months. You can find the first part, in which Dan discusses his writing about encounters between the Aztec Empire and the Spanish, here.
Wrapping up the RBS
There is no such thing as an end to collections care and accessibility, although I have reached an important milestone. I spent the past few months finishing up the 39BF2 (Medicine Crow) cataloging project, part of the River Basin Survey (RBS) collection. That work consisted mostly of more numbering, which I’ve discussed in a previous blog post. After I finished numbering, I needed to resolve any remaining issues (i.e. deal with the artifacts that had become separated from their original field numbers sometime in the past half century), double-check everything, and finalize my collection spreadsheet, which totaled approximately 45,000 objects (this number does not include those objects that were already cataloged by the previous team). I am pleased to say that cataloging is now complete and the 39BF2 collection is ready for research. You can find all of this collection, along with all other Smithsonian collections online at the Collections Search Center.
This is the last of the South Dakota RBS collections to be cataloged (though there could always be more surprises! If you read our blog, you might recall we thought we were done two years ago after 39WW2). This completes an approximately seven year cataloging project! During this time we cataloged materials from H.P. Thomas (39ST12), Cattle Oiler (39ST224), Sommers (39ST56), and Larson (39WW2), in addition to those from Medicine Crow (check our blog index for posts about those other sites). I joined the lab six years ago, when work on Cattle Oiler materials had just begun.
My summer in Belgium
Before returning to 39BF2, I spent my summer in Belgium, where, among other things, I volunteered with the City of Antwerp Archaeology service. I spent some time in the lab, sorting sherds, and I participated in an excavation in the center of the city.
The field work took place in a courtyard adjacent to some 16th century buildings, as well as some much more recent construction. An underground bicycle parking garage is planned there (to serve a museum, the city hall, and residential buildings), and excavations had to be carried out before the construction work could proceed. Various layers of city occupation (basements, floors, pits) were uncovered dating to periods between the present and the 12th century. Most of the architectural remains dated to the 15th and 16th centuries, but earlier occupations were found in the lower levels, which included some surprisingly well-preserved wooden construction. Below all of those, some Roman features (a couple of pits and a ditch) were also found.
Because I no longer do regular field work, I was a bit worried this would be painful, but it turned out fine. Sure, there was some muscle soreness, but mostly it was just exciting to be back in the field! That said, we experienced a heat wave during this time, which included record-breaking high temperatures for the area (104° F/40° C!). On the hottest days, we only excavated in the morning, when the site was shaded by the surrounding buildings, and of course took many water breaks, which are important when working in hot weather. At other times, the weather was more typically Belgian, i.e., cooler, and often rainy.
I’m grateful to the City of Antwerp Archaeology service for letting me tag along for a while, as I’d never actually done the archaeology of my own home town before!
New projects: Coming soon!
Aside from these two things, I’ve also been working on some other research for upcoming Rogers Lab projects, but we’ll tell you more about those as they progress. Stay tuned!
