Recycling

In previous posts, I described artifacts and how there may be evidence that Fort Ancient Indians may have "recycled" older tools and techniques of making pottery.  What I want to briefly discuss is how we archaeologists take the time to recycle objects and use them to our advantage in the field and in the lab.  In the field when we excavate, we tend to accumulate large piles of dirt, as to be expected.  When we need to scoop all of that dirt up with "tools" like an ice scoop from a hotel!

And the buckets we use to put the dirt in were previously containers that held cat litter or chlorine for pools.

When we are trying to extract stubborn artifacts from the dirt, we use letter openers or tools used to bevel lines into pottery instead of using our trowels.

In the lab, we save a variety of containers to place artifacts in after washing them: TV dinner trays, pudding cups, medicine bottles, etc.

You can see the usefulness in everyday items because when you don't have a large sum of money for funding excavation and research, we have to find ways to accommodate for the lack of money.  Hence, we recycle.  And in recycling, we can make comparisons to how we use everyday items that may seem like trash and see how the Fort Ancient Indians took what may have been "crap" and utilized each item to their full potential.  I love working in archaeology because I am able to make these everyday connections from modern times and compare our lifestyles and behaviors to those that happened centuries ago.  We are still so similar in so many ways.