Archaeology How-To Guide

I have established a very thorough, though by no means universal, easy peasy 20 step guide to doing archaeology.  These are based on my experiences in Montana.  They may or may not be only truly useful (?) in areas like Montana.  But that really is neither here nor there, as I think some of these steps are appropriate for wherever you do archaeology. I suspect some of the other steps were only appropriate for that particular day in the field for me, but I'm going to make them sound like they are always appropriate. 

Step 1:   Find land where you think humans once lived.

Now, this is probably by far the most important step, and includes a couple of mini-steps.  Archaeology is the study of human culture through the objects they leave behind.  Now, this can clearly only be accomplished if you actually find stuff.  

Part 1 of Step 1 involves knowing something about the archaeology of your area.  Meaning, did these, say, prehistoric, groups move on a daily basis?  Did they settle down and build permanent structures?  These things are important.  You should probably know about the people you want to study, before you get out there.  Even if it is just what the material culture looks like.  I don't know everything about the Plains Indians, but I quickly learned what types of things we'll find in Montana.  So know the basics.  It'll help.   

Part 2 of Step 1 requires you to stop, look at a map, and find someplace where you think people would have lived.  This is far more difficult than it sounds.  Trust me.  You need to ask yourself, "If I were them, would I live there?"  Some may say this is problematic, because you are thinking about yourself and not them.  But, I can tell you that is works on the Great Plains.  I wouldn't live down in a coulee.  It wouldn't be smart.  And the Plains Tribes were clearly smart as they survived for centuries out here.  So, if the answer to the question is "yes," then, just to make sure, you need to conduct background research.  Try to find out if there are other known sites near your area.  Remember, these sites should be similar to yours; that is, if you know you want to find Plains Indian sites, don't try to find out if there are any Aztec sites in Montana.  While entertaining, it would prove fruitless.  So, conducting background research will let you know the likely-hood of there maybe being something in your area.  If you have chosen a low probability area, I recommend finding a high-probability area instead.  Don't waste the time just yet.

Step 2:  Figure out how you are going to survey the area, because we're surveying and not digging.  Digging gets even more complicated.  Besides, you need to survey first to see if stuff is there before you plan to dig.  Don't get ahead of yourself.  

Take a gander at the land and at the size of the area you want to survey.  You can do this in person on the ground, or by looking at a TOPO map.  TOPO maps are great because you can look at them in the comfort of your air-conditioned office whilst twirling in your wheely chair and sipping a latte.  But you need to figure out if you are going to walk one line through the area, a.k.a. a linear survey; or if you are going to break it up into blocks and survey the blocks by walking a bunch of straight lines, a.k.a. transects.  This is kind of self-explanatory....I hope.  Pick the one that will let you get a look at the entire surface of your survey area.

Step 3:  Pack your field bag.

This is a very super important step.  Depending on the the location, and accessibility, of your survey area, you may or may not be able to quickly run back to the truck and/or office to get what you forgot....like your pencil.  So, here's what to pack:

water, lunch, pencils (do take more than one, and make sure they're all sharpened), field notes notebook, site forms, feature forms, clipboard, GPS, Trimble/GIS system of your choice, snacks, band-aids, sunblock, bug spray, toilet paper, measuring tape (one that goes up to 8 meters is handy), compass, camera, pin flags (how else will you remember where your datum is, or where you find stuff?), maps (road and topographic), a trowel, shovel, pulaski, duct tape, fire extinguisher....

That should be good.  But, you should bring whatever else you feel would be helpful/needed while walking a lot and looking for stuff. 

Your field gear storage bin needs an awesome side-kick.

This is why you need band-aids.  Those pin flags will get
you!

Step 4:  Head out to the field.

Step 5:  Go back to the office and get the maps so you know where you're going.  Might as well grab whatever else you forgot.

Step 6:  Using your road, TOPO maps, and GPS, head out to your survey area.

Be prepared to get lost, because it happens.  Especially when you go out to places in the West.  You'll find yourself driving down a paved highway looking for a road you know exists because it is on all the maps and even the GPS.  However, you'll be damned if you can find it.  And so, an hour later, when you finally find your long sought-after road, you realize it isn't a road, per se.  What you actually find yourself driving on is a barely-there two-track road that looks suspiciously like two parallel cattle trails.  But hey, you found your road, and hopefully your survey area is off of this road, because if you have to find another barely-there two-track off of your current barely-there two track, you may start to wonder what you're doing with your life.

Cows are about to block our "road," hurry!

Step 7:  We're going to assume you finally found your survey area.  So, Step 7 involves picking where in your site you're going to start.  

Now if you were smart, you picked a starting point, and survey area datum point, before going out to survey.  Although you can just wing it.  I do.  

Step 8:  Now that you have your survey block datum (we're going to assume block surveys since it will be more entertaining), you can start walking transects.

Walking transects is quite fun.  First figure out what kind of spacing you need between transects.  Generally speaking, they are spaced 5-15 meters apart, though this is dependent on ground visibility.  If you are walking in an area with heavy vegetation, you'll want your transects closer together so that you don't miss anything due to the vegetation.  Now, when you are walking through a field that has been grazed by cattle, you can see more of the ground and, therefore, can space yourselves out more.  Just watch out for cow patties.

Now, all you do is walk forward, maybe in a slightly zig zag manner, along a straight line and look for stuff.  Human-made stuff, mind you.  Hopefully you'll know what kind of human-stuff you should be looking for....it is helpful.  You don't need to be an expert, I know I'm not, but you should be able to say "yes!  This is human-made!"  Some things are more difficult than others, so know that if you have to squint at it to make it look like what you expect, then you can safely put it back down and say "nope!"  

I have a few more tips for walking transects:

• If you are walking transects with other people, your transects should not cross.  That would defeat the point.
• There is no shame in using your compass to make sure you are still walking in the same cardinal direction.  Even if you have only taken two steps and forget which sagebrush you were supposed to walk towards, and you have to take your compass back out again to double-check, that's okay!  
• If you have a very large area in your block survey, I highly recommend walking transects to a point where you can see your starting pin flag (I really hope you didn't forget those!).  You see, when you can still see your starting point, you know to walk 5-15 meters to the side of your last pin flag.  When you do this, you have a better chance at not returning to the datum line and asking "Where the hell did that other pin flag go?"  Only to find you have to redo a huge section because you wandered at an angle.  Trust me.  It is better this way.

Lastly, as you walk your transects, use those nifty pin flags to mark every artifact and/or feature you find.  

Good use of pin flags....as scales for adorable greater short-horned lizards!!!!  But let's stay focused on surveying shall we?

(note:  Step 8 was a lot to take in...but it really is very simple!!)

Step 9:  So, once your transects are walked and your survey area has been completely...well, surveyed, go back through and play Find-the-Pin-Flags!!

This step is made far easier if you don't use green pin flags in a grassy area.  But hey, if you like a challenge..... 

(note:  Step 9 may be very time consuming)

Step 10:  Record your findings!

Yay!  Look at you being all archaeological and doing science!  Recording stuff is simple, you figure out if it really is what you thought it was when you marked it, if you decide you had been seeing things, repeat Step 9 now, otherwise read on....

When you have decided the thing is really a thing, take a walk around the thing to see if you see other things that you may not have noticed whilst walking the transect.  It happens, don't worry!  Then you need to record the thing, to include taking measurements (on whatever axes make sense to know the size), drawing a sketch of it, getting it's location in the world (either Lat/Long or UTM coordinates will do just fine), describing the thing's relationship to other things around it (this includes human-made things, plant life, soil stuff, anything in the immediate vicinity), taking a photograph of it with a scale that preferably points north, describing it in insane detail (like if it appears to be where it was originally left or if it looks like some cow kicked it around)....and anything else you find to be important to note.  (It is at this point that I hope you remembered all your field gear).  Got it?  Just ramble in your notes.  It helps to not over-think it and just let the writing flow.  Don't impede yourself.  Set your writing muse free, as you will be thanking said muse when you go to do your write-up.

Tape measures are good for measuring, providing scales in photos, and pointing north.  

Once you are done, repeat Step 9 until you are reasonably sure you've found all your pin flags.  This may take awhile.  But you'll get it!

(another note.......we're going to pretend you only had one survey block to accomplish and that you found stuff.  Go you!)

Step 11:  Find your way out of your survey area along all those barely-there two-tracks again.

Step 12:  Get lost....again.

Step 13:  Find the road you need, and eventually how to get there.  

Found it!  Found the road!  How the heck do we get there?!

Step 14:  Finally find your road and head back to your office/lab.

Step 15:  Go home for the night and have an age-appropriate drink....or two.....to relax.

Step 16:  Analysis time!!!!

So, here you are, all proud of yourself!  Look at you!  You found your survey area, surveyed it, recorded stuff, and found your way back.  Now it is time for you to figure out what everything you recorded really means.  First, decode your notes from the field.  Once completed, organize and name all of the things you found in the field.  Once you give them these names, for the love of all your sanity, keep them at the one name.  

Fill out site forms as completely as possible.  Draw sketches of your sites, and don't worry about your drawing abilities.  Think like Picasso, be Picasso....you are Picasso!  Also, label your photos now, preferably with the official name of whatever it is the photo is of.

I AM Picasso!!!!!!!!!!

Plan views are awesome.  The let you draw something to scale so your circular tipi ring
still looks like a circle and not a square.

Step 17:  Report writing.  (note the lack of exclamation marks)

Writing the report is akin to writing a big o' term paper in college....well, graduate school.  Almost like a thesis.  The final report is what will either make or break all your work in the field.  You will be successful or you'll fail miserably and wonder what you're doing with your life.  I kid.  Sort of.

So, the report is going to be a regurgitation of everything you did for the survey, to include your background research (you need to justify why you chose that area, never mind the fact that you found stuff), a description of the survey area, site descriptions (to include a detailed description of all the things you found), and conclusions (gosh darnit, say in a confident manner what it is you found and what their function was! Be proud of your sites with unknown functions!  It is okay.).  There's more to it, but that is the core of the report.  You need to include your site forms, photographs, site sketch maps, plan views of the features you found, GIS maps (oh, yeah, you need to make those at some point during the analysis.....), a nice table to clearly and neatly organize your new sites, and of course, an awesome report title page....like this:

An antelope on the cover of an archaeological report.
Makes perfect sense.

Step 18:  We're just going to combine numerous steps into this one:  revise, find new mistakes, revise, find more mistakes that you swear weren't there the last time, curl up in a ball and cry for an hour, revise again, cry some more, give up and submit the report.

Step 19:  Sleep for a week and have nightmares about revisions.

Step 20:  Forget about the stress you went through writing that report, return to Step 1.

Welcome to archaeology!!