Volunteering at Castle Museum Archaeology (and lots of mortar)

Artifacts, which have just been washed. They're drying, and are waiting to be re-bagged. To the left is a box of artifacts from the same site, which have already been re-bagged and were put in ascending order. 

29 June 2017
My recent job search was less than satisfactory; so to keep myself and my mind busy, I've been volunteering for the Castle Museum of Saginaw County History. There, I volunteer my time to help with whatever field and lab work needs to be done, and it turned out to be a great opportunity for me.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we're digging in the field. This summer, we're situated at the Steltzriede farm site, which is right in Saginaw County. There, we have uncovered a lot of mortar/chinking material, and few historic artifacts (nails, ceramic, glass, bone). We expected to find the edge of the cellar, which is associated with the original log cabin on the property. Read more about the project here: https://hsscarchaeology.wordpress.com/ (You should really look at it. Trust me.)
The whole point of volunteering here was to get some more experience under my belt. There were several things that I wasn't completely comfortable doing, such as mapping wall and floor profiles. Apparently I came to the right place, because I had to map in at least eighty pieces of mortar during excavation at this site.

The look like stones, but they're hunks of mortar. 

More mortar, but perhaps 5 cm lower than the first picture. 

One piece of ceramic was found among the mortar that day. I was very excited. 

A metal button that we found at the same site, in a different unit. This possibly post-dates the mortar. 

The mortar/chinking material is extremely soft, and is a light brown color. A sharpened trowel slices through it easily, so we had to excavate with caution. Since we were trying to find the edge of the cellar/weren't sure what to make of all of the mortar, Jeff wanted us to dig within 5 cm levels (levels are typically excavated in 10 cm increments, unless one comes across soil change). Although it's going slowly, I appreciate the meticulous nature of the excavation.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we do lab work. There are hundreds of artifacts that are recovered from each project and field season, so the artifact bags tend to pile up. In the field, the srtifacts are collected and are give either a way point or FS number, which is an efficient way to keep track of proveniences. When the artifacts make it to the lab, they are washed and left out to dry; after that, they are given new provenience cards (cards that have the date, provenience, and the names of those who collected the artifacts recorded on them) and are re-bagged according to their artifact category. After everything is re-bagged and organized, the artifacts are given a catalog number. After that, they are stored for later analysis and curation.

These artifacts were given different bags, based on their "category". Here, we have one prehistoric artifact (chert), one Victorian bead, ceramic sherds, bottle glass, a brick fragment, a piece of bone, and an unidentified metal piece. They all have the same provenience/were found in the same unit.

These treasures are drying, and are awaiting the re-bagging and analysis process. They already have their new provenience cards. 

It took a minute for me to get the hang of writing out the provenience cards, since we did lab work differently in Dr. Ensor's field school at EMU. There, the artifacts' categories were recorded on the bags in the field. At the lab, each one was given a catalog number; after that, they were washed and re-bagged for storage. As you can see, we did things in a slightly different order - which was a little confusing at first. But, this is another benefit of volunteering here; I am able to experience other methods of conducting field and lab work.
Lab work is busy work; I'm sure that it sounds boring, and sometimes it certainly can be. However, I absolutely adore it here. By washing the different types of artifacts, one can learn about the material that is being collected from the field. I can now identify different species of animal bone and historic ceramic styles, for example.

A pipe bowl fragment; the "TD" was a part of a popular maker's mark, as were the patriotic star decoration (NOT from the Steltzriede Farm site). 

The lab work is fun, but I'm dying to help out with analysis. Maybe at some point I'll ask about that.
Jeff Sommer (Primary Investigator/Curator of Archaeology at the Castle Museum) is a pleasant person to work for. The other volunteers are pleasant people to work with as well (I've only met Nick, Roxanne, and Brad so far - but they're pretty awesome people). In general, my time as a volunteer at the Castle Museum is a valuable experience. My hope is to be able to come help out regularly.
Saginaw is two and a half hours away from home, so driving back and forth every day is not ideal. My cousin, Gail, lets me stay at her house while I'm here, and I'm incredibly thankful for all of her help.
Saginaw is a cool place. It's much larger than my humble hometown, Monroe, and there's a lot more things to do. One of my favorite things in the world is to go hiking, and Saginaw has a few places for that. The Shiawassee Wildlife Reserve is one of my favorites so far. (Thanks, Nick, for exploring that with me)

A view at the Shiawassee Wildlife Refuge, taken from one of the trail's bridges. The place was slightly flooded at this time.