How excavators handle the objects they find is critical to the knowledge they can give us, and to the survival of the objects in a state at least as good as they enjoyed underground. The aim is to transfer the find as directly as possible into the protective and labeled container in which it will be archived: usually, this means a bag of special plastic, or in the case of fragile small objects a small plastic vial or box. Larger pieces of stone and larger bones may be placed carefully in a bucket or crate for transport from the site. See below for more details. You will be shown how to handle bones. As much as possible of this sorting into the object(s)’s permanent containers should be done at the site; what is not done at the site must be done that day back at the dig house. Identifying information of stratigraphic context must never be lost: it must accompany the find into its container. This information includes: the SU/SSU/HRU number; the Area/Zone/Trench designations; the retrieval date.

Ann Kuttner manages the finds and their database, from a permanent workstation. All objects beside pottery should be brought directly to the dighouse. If AK or her assistant is not present, put finds in the correct containers at the designated station. You will be shown boxes and crates for finds waiting to be processed, divided by categories. If you have special context circumstances to report for your material, explain this in person or in writing to AK or her assistant. Pottery is the responsibility of Karen Heslin and Candace Varden. Cori Fenwick is responsible for human remains. Architectural stonework and veneering goes to Dirk Booms. Glass goes to Monica Hellstrom. Kevin will have special instructions for those handling organic remains for his care.

Don’t ever remove finds from their storage to look at without good reason. If for some professional reason you do need to check finds, do not take them very far from the finds station; don’t take more than one object out of its container at one time, to avoid confusing context identification.

Transport and storage equipment:
Each trench supervisor makes sure that each morning his/her team has on site one or two Sharpie pens, plastic bags in all sizes, acetate labels, a few small plastic boxes, and cushioning material. Sharpies are costly! do NOT lose them. All labeling information should be written with them, not with pencil or any other pen. Much time is saved by having labels ready in advance with one’s Area/Zone/Trench data on it. Our labels are cut from big sheets of acetate. The trench supervisor should keep an eye out, and go cut a lot more if the pile is low.

How not to damage finds in the field: – Handle the object as little as possible. – Cleaning dirt off: DONT. Dirt protects the objects it surrounds, until they can be properly cleaned and conserved. If a small object is embedded in a very large clod of dirt, you may with great care see if the dirt will easily come free. If it does not, stop trying. Do not ever use a metal tool in this process.

– Don’t step on the object or lose it. – All animal bones and sherds should be put into a tray or bucket, not on the trench edge.: this should have a label in it Have bags and labels for objects handy in reach to put things into quickly!

– Keep objects out of the sun. Never let painted plaster sit in direct sunlight, particularly in a plastic bag where it will sweat.

– Don’t let one object break another object. – Heavy and hard and big breaks fragile and small. It is very easy to break glass and fragile metals by jamming them into the same container as pottery and heavier metal finds, or by bringing them home in a large container of bags with heavy things lying on top of more easily damaged things. This applies to skeletal remains of different scales as well. Be careful also of jamming very thin-walled ceramic fragments closely against thicker ones. At the end of the digging day, you will bring your finds back: take care when you stack things, to put the heaviest and hardest on the bottom. Very fragile and small objects can be carried by hand.

– Separate containers (bags, boxes, etc) for
• Pottery and animal bones: one bag for each SU/HRU
• Ceramic artifacts (i.e., spindle whorls: separate from the pottery into its own bag immediately
• Beads (we get beads in ceramic, glass, and bone) get a small bag each.
• Metal and glass jewelry: small bag or little box, cushioned as needed.
• Glass vessel remains: one bag for each SU; more fragile remains, separately. DO NOT REMOVE DIRT.
• Coins: one bag each (multiple coins from one SU may be brought home together, but they must quickly get a bag each)
• Stone decors from architecture (veneers, decorative stonework). There will be designated crates for the veneer remains: Dirk will instruct.
• Sculptural remains: put those small enough to fit into a bag, with a paper label; for large pieces, get them into a crate with a label attached as closely as possible. For transport lay carefully in a crate or bucket, or hand-carry. Do not pile anything on top of sculpture.
• Metals: Nails, lead pieces, and slag from one SU may be put into one container. All other small metal finds get their own bag, with special care for fragile and worked metal.
• ****Unidentifiable crude metal remains: your trench supervisor will indicate how much he/she wishes preserved of the remains of metalworking (slag) and degenerated metals (corroded and burnt lumps). When in doubt bring it home. Metal tends to corrode dramatically into unrecognizable blobs but with conservation the original ring, nail, coin or other object can be retrieved. – Painted plaster fragments: lay in a flat crate for transport, face down upon newspaper. If one must stack the pieces, put a layer of newspaper in between. Any painted plaster with stucco on it must be handled with great care, DO NOTREMOVE DIRT. – Stamped rooftile: if the fragment is small enough, put in a bag: if it is too big, put in a crate. – Tesserae [mosaic pieces]: bring glass and stone tesserae to the dighouse, where they will be counted, but not catalogued. These may be placed for immediate transport to the dig with other finds from their SU.

What kind of container? what is the best way to label?

There are 2 ways to attach identifying information: – written on a label inserted into the object’s bag or lidded container – written on a label inserted into the bucket or crate transporting larger objects home. It can be hard to deal with, say, a couple of large stone sculpture fragments two different contexts that need to share a crate: if you have no string to tie a label on, try carefully bagging one end of such an object and writing on the bag, and/or wrapping it up in written-on newspaper, to get it back to the dighouse.
We reuse bags, so you cannot write on the plastic bag, except for skeletal remains. They are packaged and labeled and their bags are not reused.

Always use the smallest possible bag/ container.

Fragile things need cushioning with paper or cotton wool, like larger pieces of thin-walled glass, glass with ornamental projections, and fragile bits of metal. Sometimes a small plastic box is needed for e.g. rings from the cemetery. Always use cushioning material in a box so the thing in it does not rattle. Every object you see will have to share storage containers with many other things.

Back at the dighouse:
See above for whom to bring finds to, and how.
`Bagging’: Promptly finish getting objects into the labeled individual containers they need.
Washing: All pottery and stone can and should be washed. Do not wash or try to brush or rub clean any other kind of object in any other medium, coins included.
Cleaning bags: bags are often soiled inside by what is put into them onsite. Wash dirty bags promptly for reuse.

Filling in the Finds Record Sheets

At Villa Magna we distinguish between three classes of finds apart from pottery and glass: Coins, Architectural Elements and Objects, which include all the other classes of material – bone and ivory, metal, beads of any material, etc. These are initially recorded on a single sheet, the Finds Record Sheet. There are three running inventories for these: thus coins have an inventory beginning with C, Architectural Elements one beginning with AE, and Objects beginning with O. In the upper left hand corner the number will be O23, or AE 51.

At the top of the page are fields recording the basic site data. Particular fields to take note of are:

Identification – simple identifier: nail, die, buckle, etc. ‘unid.’ is used for unidentified objects. We try and avoid registering really useless lumps of metal etc. (which get noted on the Scheda of the US, but not kept as an Object), so do make a judgment call as to whether the object is worth recording.
State of Conservation – Describe the state of conservation at the time of Recording.
Conservation Interventions is a field to be filled in by an eventual conservator.
Drawings – lists the drawing number of a finished drawing.
Sketch – make a quick sketch of the object, for identification purposes.

Filling in the Materials Inventory
This is a list of all the materials in the SU. Once the pottery and other material from the context are clean they are given an initial classification, separating them into basic typological divisions, and the numbers of these are recorded on the materials inventory. This will be carried out by the finds supervisors and their assistants. The sorted pottery for each class should be put into a smaller bag before being bagged collectively. At the bottom of the sheets are spaces for listing the objects inventoried separately on the Finds Record Sheets.

For further reading:
Sease, C. A conservation manual for field archaeologists (1994).
Watkinson, D. First aid for finds, 3rd rev ed. (1998).