Category : Home 2019

One Man’s Trash. . .

“So are you like Indiana Jones?”

This is probably the question people most frequently ask when they discover I’m working on an archaeological dig. In reality, it is not nearly as glamorous—or as dangerous—as a day in the life of Indiana Jones. There are no booby traps, Nazi officers, or pits of snakes. The closest we come to any of that is the (very) infrequent sighting of a scorpion or snake whose habitat we happen to be invading.

So what do we actually do on a dig? Well, we dig. We move lots and lots of dirt. Sometimes it’s a quick process, moving square feet of dirt within minutes by using a pickaxe. Sometimes it requires an eye for detail, taking off millimeters at a time, by gently scraping with the edge of a trowel. And sometimes, excavation happens with the careful strokes of a soft brush. After removing layers of soil, we sift everything, to make sure we didn’t miss any finds as we dug.

What’s the point then, if not to save the world from Biblical plagues?

There are two main purposes that stand out to me. The first is the rare “special find:” items that were not trash, but that still were buried in the soil of time. Finding such an object makes all the sweat, fatigue, and sore muscles worth it. They are reminders that while civilizations may have changed, humanity remains largely the same. This is what could be considered the glamor of archaeology. On the entire dig site, there are anywhere from two to six special finds each day. These could be unbroken pottery jugs, figurines, coins, beads, or other pieces of jewelry.

The second important element is the more mundane, but equally important analysis of the “trash:” things so broken or beyond salvage that the ancients viewed them as worthless, which is saying a lot, considering that they recycled just about everything. The trash could be things like animal bones, pottery shards, or olive pits. These are thoroughly cleaned and examined, and the most indicative pieces are kept. Such items can help with dating the finds from the same level, and can also tell us a lot about how people lived—what kinds of food they ate, whether they had trade with foreign countries, or what kinds of trades were commonly practiced (like blacksmithing or dye production). This can greatly enrich our understanding of the ancient world (and give a unique view into our own time).

And that is how one person’s trash becomes an archaeologist’s treasure.

Perhaps a type of tarantula? Its body was about the size of my thumb.

A metal ring-pendant (a special find!)

A glass bead. It disintegrated almost immediately.

Plastic: The New Pottery

It is said that today most people cannot go a day—nay, an hour—without touching or using plastic in some form. It is ubiquitous, cheap, and malleable. Our Tel breakfast is consistently filled with examples of plastic, such as the silverware, water bottles, and food containers we use. We also wash the found pottery using plastic buckets, sit on plastic stools, and place the washed pieces in plastic crates. Plastic has become central to our lives in so many ways. And so far, my only special find on the dig has been a piece of old plastic that was the result of bioturbation or the disturbance of the dirt layers by, in this case, a mole.

In a similar way, the aforementioned pottery was ever-present in the ancient world. Pottery was used for many purposes and came in many forms, such as jugs, amphoras, and pots, because it was also malleable and able to take many shapes. It was the plastic of its day.

The pervasive presence of pottery sherds or fragments on the Tel Akko dig speaks to this fact. Sherds are everywhere. Excavate for long and you will find them. The first day of the dig I was surprised to see sherds littering the ground around the exterior of the dig site and being used by us under our large water jugs to minimize the mud when we washed our hands. By the end of the first week I was nonchalantly chucking excavated sherds into buckets without a thought in my excavation square.

Both plastic and pottery are human-made materials formed through heat and pressure. Both are durable. Both are often decorated with designs and colors. Plastic is mainly made from polymers. The main types include nylon, styrofoam, and polyester. Pottery is mainly made from clay and the main types include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.

Many on the dig have remarked that if future humans excavated our refuse and remains—the evidence of our lives—they would probably find a lot of plastic sherds. And they would probably be excited the first day too, like I was. By the end of the first week they would probably be casually cataloging the cache of plastic sporks they found.

Always Making A Mark

All living things make their mark in this life—on their environment and on other living things. At the Tel Akko archaeological site I have found that animals and plants consistently make their mark on the environment, especially with their holes and seed pods. Moles, bees, ants, scorpions, castor plants, and cacti must be navigated and, in some cases, removed on the site. And we must not forget that the elements make their mark as well, with the rain, wind, and sun that deposit debris within the site that must also be removed. But none of this compares to humans’ ability to leave a lasting mark. Animals, plants, and mother nature have nothing on us.

All humans make a lasting mark—that is part of what it means to be human with our inherent creative and destructive capabilities. We cannot help but significantly modify our environment and each other. And that is what the Tel Akko dig is all about. We are attempting to uncover the ‘marks’ of other humans who came before us—the structures they built, the pottery they made, the coins they used—in order to learn about their lives.

And in the process of excavating archaeologists and excavators make their own marks on the environment by building paths, setting up storage sheds, and breaking found pottery. They also make their mark with how the site is set up in the beginning—what areas are excavated, what grid lines are placed where, and what is considered significant. And I make my mark with my troweling, scraping, and sweeping.

And found past ‘marks’ or artifacts such as pottery, bone, shell, and slag must be examined, interpreted, and given meaning, because it is also human to want and seek for meaning. Context is everything when determining significance and meaning—in archaeology and all other disciplines. We must cautiously and methodically remove dirt and artifacts in such a way to be able to determine the context. Otherwise, it is just dirt and refuse. As the saying goes, ‘one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.’

Thus, in the end, for me archaeology is the science and art of giving meaning to carefully unearthed historical human relics—also known as ‘controlled destruction’—in which we are making our mark through the process of examining the marks of past humans. And in the spirit of marking, with this blog post I make my digital mark containing what I have learned through this experience!