An Intern Experience

          A sure sign of summer is high school and college graduations and with this major life changing event often comes the proverbial question of “what are you going to do now”?  Many of us are interested in a range of subjects and determining how to hone those interests into a career can be challenging.  Volunteering or interning is one way to define those interests and skills and recognize whether there is a sufficient sense of commitment and enthusiasm to develop a career.  We have students who volunteer with us, they must be 16 or older, and we welcome interns from the surrounding educational institutions in proximity to Harrisburg.  This week TWIPA will feature a blog from one of our two interns this semester from Elizabethtown College. 

Erin mocking up exhibit label placement

My name is Erin Gregory and I will be graduating from Elizabethtown College this May with degrees in Sociology/Anthropology and English Professional Writing. Afterward, I plan on enrolling in the Museum Communications program at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. But how I went from an English-concentrated course load to my interest in museum work is an interesting story.

If you asked 10-year-old me “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I would’ve cheerfully given you answers like a veterinarian, a singer, or an actress. As I got older and was forced to think rationally, all my answers disappeared. Toward the end of high school, I still had no answer, so I applied to undergraduate English programs because I knew I could write. I was half way through my sophomore year of college when I realized I dreaded the thought of a job in copy editing or proof reading. Though I enjoyed my literature classes, I knew I couldn’t make a living off of reading Shakespeare. Luckily, I picked up my second major – Sociology/Anthropology – freshmen year.

By junior year, I still couldn’t answer “what do you want to be when you grow up?” (the question matured a little and became “what are you doing after college?”). It took a trip to Iceland to find my answer. My classmates and I visited the National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik during our trip and I was fascinated. As I wandered from exhibit to exhibit, it dawned on me: museum studies. I could take my passion for anthropology and my writing skills and apply them in a museum environment. After the trip, I contacted my academic adviser and asked about museum internships. She mentioned interning for the Section of Archeology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania and I jumped at the opportunity.

I wanted to focus more on the curatorial side of museum work rather than the hands-on archeological work because truthfully, I’m not a fan of getting dirty. So Janet, my mentor, and I decided that I would create an exhibit to highlight the work of one of the museum’s donors, Doris Freyermuth. Doris was an amateur archaeologist who had amassed a very important collection of artifacts from the Delaware Valley.  Without having a background in archeology, I knew I would have a rough start. Soon after starting my internship, I learned “rough” was an understatement. What do these numbers and letters mean? How many catalog systems are there? What’s a Riker box? What’s a Vosburg? Sandts Eddy is where? What’s a “Woodland” period? I had all these questions, but luckily, Janet and the rest of the department had all the answers.

For the exhibit, I needed to do the following: research Doris’ background in archeology, search the sites she helped excavate, create text that described both Doris and the sites, select some of her artifacts to display, arrange them in chronological order, pin them onto mounts, and map out how they would fit into the exhibit case. I’m sure there were additional steps involved because it took about four months to do all of that. In my defense, I assisted elsewhere in the department, helping staff with other collections. This involved helping to organize collections, package collections, cleaning or reconstructing artifacts, and typing data into their database. My focus was on curator responsibilities, but I wanted to learn everything and thankfully, I was able to do that during my internship.

Freyermuth collection selected ceramics 

Interning at the museum reinforced my decision to go into the museum field. Though I had a rough start, the staff was very helpful. By experiencing the behind-the-scenes work of an exhibit, I gained knowledge and experience I wouldn’t have obtained anywhere else. This internship has created a foundation not only for my graduate studies but for my future career path.

Intern projects are designed to provide training for students and to aid in curation and analysis of our archaeological collections.  Our Keystone summer intern will be arriving in a few weeks and will assist in sorting and inventorying of a large collection recently donated by an avocational archaeologist from Lebanon County.  This will provide an opportunity to examine artifacts, learn basic tool types and understand the process of inventorying, cataloging and analyzing these materials.  If you are interested in interning or are a high school student seeking an opportunity to learn more about archaeology, feel free to contact us for additional information.  See our “about us” on the far right side bar.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

Analyzing Stone Axes

       Hello my name is Tamara Eichelberger, and I was an intern during the spring semester with the Section of Archaeology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania. I have been interested in anthropology since I was a kid after I picked up a copy of National Geographic. I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in anthropology in high school and became a Sociology-Anthropology major at Elizabethtown College. While at Elizabethtown, I participated in archaeological digs at the Washington Boro site in Lancaster County and also in Trim, Ireland. I also worked for two weeks at the Museum of Copenhagen helping to wash, catalog, and analyze a collection of human skeletal remains. I got to spend my final spring semester of my senior year at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, and it was such a wonderful experience for me.

Recording catalog information in preparation for analysis.



            While I spent some time organizing some documents donated to the museum at the beginning of my internship, the majority of my time was spent working with the collection of Native American axes housed at the museum. There are over 700 axes in the collection which were donated by private individuals in the early years of collecting. These collections were not cataloged and organized to today’s standards and had never undergone a comprehensive analysis. It was my job to go through over 50 boxes and make sure each axe had a unique catalog number and to measure and analyze the different features of the axes. The ultimate aim of the project is not only to catalog and measure the axes so the Museum has a record of them, but to also to do research on these axes. There have been few studies done on Native American axes in Pennsylvania so this project will add to our knowledge of stone tools in the area.

 

Tray of axes which illustrates the variety of axes analyzed.

         Before coming to the Section of Archaeology, I did not have much experience with stone tools or curation in general. I worked closely with Dr. Kurt Carr and several of the other staff throughout my time at the museum. I learned about the cataloging process for the State Museum and was able to wash and label over 250 previously un-cataloged axes. After washing and labeling, we worked to create an Access data base so we could record the different features and measurements of the axes. This was the most difficult part of the process as time and time again we came across an axe that stumped us and forced us to add in new variables to the analysis. I learned a lot about the manufacture of the axes and the variety of different uses they could have had. There was so much variety in the different axes that it felt almost impossible at times to fit them all in to the data base. However, this catalog will help us to learn more about the varieties of axes so I am excited about what we can learn once it is completed.

Measuring and weighing each axe with electronic calipers.

My favorite experience this semester was working in the Nature Lab in the State Museum. The Nature Lab is a place where different divisions of the museum can share the work they do with visitors to the museum. Three times during my internship, I packed up a cart full of scales, axes, diagrams, and other tools and set myself up in the Nature Lab. I was able to talk to many interested visitors about the axe project and what kind of work I was doing as an intern. For me, the most rewarding part of archaeology is being able to share findings and history with others, and the Nature Lab allowed me to do just that. Many of the people who visited the Nature Lab were children who were on field trips to the Museum for the day. I loved to watch their eyes light up with amazement every time I told them that the axes I passed around to them were thousands of years old. They also asked many great questions about the axes, archaeology, and Native American culture. I can only hope that they will continue to be interested in learning more about the past in the future.

Sharing my research in the Science Lab at The State Museum of Pennsylvania.

 

I could not be more grateful for all of the help that everyone gave me at the Museum during the semester. After working with the Section of Archaeology, I realized that I could see myself working at a museum as a curator in the future. I gained so many valuable hands-on skills that will help me in the future as I head off to graduate school for bioarchaeology in the fall. Although my internship at the museum has ended, and I will be graduating from Elizabethtown College very soon, the axe project has not been fully completed. The next intern with the Section of Archaeology will pick up on the project where I left off. After spending a whole semester working with the axes, I want to continue to help with the project and hope to visit the Museum again in the summer as a volunteer.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

Groovin' with stone axes

This week in our alphabetical trip through Pennsylvania archaeology, we have reached the letter “X”; and, to keep it simple, “X” stands for axes, specifically stone axes.

Axes are one of several hafted stone tool types that are differentiated by the angle at which the head is seated. An axe blade or head, is hafted parallel to the handle rather than perpendicular to the handle as in hoes or adzes. There are two basic axe forms; chipped axes and pecked and polished axes. Chipped axes have two opposing notches and the notches were used in the hafting process. They are relatively simple to make and were used during many time periods in prehistory. Ground and polished axes are grooved for securing the head to the handle. A full grooved axe has a groove that encircles the entire piece. On the ¾ grooved axes, the groove does not extend to the bottom side.

chipped axe

sketch of full grooved axe

sketch of 3/4 grooved axe

Ground and polished axes frequently start out as river cobbles that were chosen for their general size and shape. Metamorphosed siltstone or sandstone, basalt or diabase was frequently used and sometimes quartzite. Depending on the degree of stone that needed to be removed to reach the desired shape, axes are first chipped to remove excess material or if only a small amount of material needs to be removed, they are pecked into shape. The pecking process involves using a stone hammer and repeatedly but carefully striking the axe blank, removing small pieces of the surface. The groove formed early in the manufacturing process. Once the entire surface was pecked to the desired shape, the axe blank was rubbed on a piece of sandstone to smooth the surface. Although not found in Pennsylvania, special axe grinding slabs have been found in the western United States. In order to attain a very high polish, the final rubbing takes place on a charred piece of wood.  

groove started on an axe blank

Full grooved and ¾ grooved axes were hafted slightly differently as can be observed in the figure below. The functional differences, however, are not clear. In addition, sometimes the groove is bordered by a ridge on one or both sides and sometime there is a double groove. It is assumed that this was part of the hafting method but again, the functional differences are not clear. Depending on the hardness of the stone, the manufacturing process for a full grooved and completely polished axe required 30 to 60 hours of work.

sketch of hafted axes

finished full groove axe

finished 3/4 grooved axe

double grooved axe

Axes were sharpened by simply grinding down the bit end as it became worn. Most of the axes in The State Museum collection are broken or worn down, nearing the end of their use life. However, some are very large (see below) and some of the unfinished pieces are extremely heavy weighing 4445 gr or 10 pounds and measuring 39 cm or 15 inches in length.

large finished full grooved axe

longest axe

 heaviest axe

Native Americans have been using axes to cut wood ever since they arrived in North America. However, during the Paleoindian period (11,700 - 20,000 BP.) they are neither notched or polished and difficult to identify unless systematic microwear studies are conducted. It is not until the Middle Archaic period (6850 – 10,200 BP.) that ground and polished axes are produced. Full grooved axes are the earliest and ¾ grooved axes do not appear until the (Late Archaic 4850 – 6850 BP.) and become common during the Transitional period (2800 – 4850 BP.).

            The State Museum is initiating an inventory and preliminary analysis of its unprovenienced collection of grooved and chipped stone axes. This group of artifacts was received as part of various donated collections such as those from Gerald Fenstermaker and Samuel Farver and are not located by specific site. They are primarily from eastern Pennsylvania and mainly the Susquehanna drainage basin. Up until a month ago, they were stored in boxes and underutilized. For exhibit or research purposes, we didn’t know what we had unless we inventoried and catalogued all 54 boxes. Our goal is to make a list of all that we have, catalogue them by type and take some basic measurements to determine variations in size, breakage patterns, how they were made and the lithic materials that were used. Our intern this semester, Tamara Eichelberger from Elizabethtown College, has volunteered to process the collection. Although they had been washed sometime in the past, over 40 years of dust had accumulated so they needed to be wiped clean. Since each will be measured and entered into a data base, each needs an individual catalogue and specimen number. With the help of volunteers, Tamara is completing the labeling process and will begin taking measurements next week. There are over 500 specimens in the collection so she should be able to develop a good characterization of axes from eastern Pennsylvania. The results of her analysis will be the subject of a blog in early May.

Tam and her axes

Additional reading

Adams Jenny L.

2014    Ground Stone Analysis: A Technological Approach. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. 

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

Summer Internship in Archaeology

This week our blog will focus on one of two summer interns in the Section of Archaeology, State Museum of Pennsylvania. Hannah Wagner is a rising senior at Dickinson College who participated in the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Keystone Internship program.  Interns provide valuable assistance to the curatorial activities including identification, analysis and research or artifacts as well as collections management.  We wish Hannah the best as she completes her program at Dickinson and prepares for graduate studies.

rehousing Ephrata Cloister (36La981) artifact collection (photo courtesy of Carl Sander Socolow, Dickinson College)

I have been interested in archaeology for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, I had a particular interest in ancient Egypt, and I remember getting all kinds of books and learning materials about mummies for my tenth birthday. Looking back, this was probably not so normal for a ten year old! But as I grew older my interests developed, and I realized that I could actually turn this fascination into a career. And so, this fall I will be starting my senior year at Dickinson College where I study archaeology and art history. I am very excited to have had this opportunity to intern in the Section of Archaeology at Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) as a Keystone Summer Intern. 

mending reconstructed red earthenware vessel from Ephrata Cloister (photo courtesy of Carl Sander Socolow, Dickinson College)

My experience working in the Section of Archaeology has opened my eyes to so many new opportunities.  It is amazing how much I have learned over the course of the summer. My main project has been rehousing the artifacts from the excavations at Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County. The archaeological field school at Ephrata ran from 1994 to 2003, under the direction of former Senior Curator, Steve Warfel. The collections were inventoried and housed on open shelving, organized within their year of excavation. My rehousing project included removing the artifacts from their boxes and into acid-free boxes and bags and prior to placing them in drawers for curation. As the artifacts are being moved I am also creating a drawer inventory of each catalog number, a general artifact class and the new location. This inventory is then recorded in an electronic database maintained by the Section to be used for quick reference in the search for artifacts in the collection. Detailed inventories prepared after each field season are available for researchers who may be searching for a specific artifact type or class. Freeing up this shelf space is important; this then opens up space for more artifacts, increasing the size of our collections and the number of artifacts available for research. This project has definitely given me a lot of insight into tasks like proper curation practices, conservation, organization, and the duties of a curator.  

2014 Keystone Interns at the Pennsylvania Rail Road Museum

As part of the internship, PHMC took us on some great field trips. We visited a few PHMC properties and I was able to learn all about Pennsylvania heritage. My favorite trip was our day trip to Ephrata Cloister, Oregon Dairy, and The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. In addition to these field trips, I was able to tag along on a PennDOT sponsored field trip to McCormick Taylor, a consulting engineering firm specializing in design, land use planning, and environmental studies for transportation-related projects. Before this I hadn’t had much exposure to the world of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) archaeology, but visiting their office gave me a different understanding of CRM and opened it up as a possible career path for the future.

This summer I also had the opportunity to spend four weeks excavating at an archaeological field school in Trim, Ireland. The site was a Late Medieval Dominican Friary from the 13^th century. There I learned basic excavation techniques like taking levels and coordinates, recording features, and how to properly excavate, document, and process human remains (the grounds of the friary also contained medieval burials). This experience, coupled with my internship, gave me a more complete understanding of the many aspects of archaeological research, including excavation, lab procedure and analysis, and preservation and curation. 

This internship has also given me the opportunity to diversify my knowledge base and to learn more about Pennsylvania and Native American archaeology as well as Cultural Resource Management and Historic Preservation. This summer I was able to acquire hands-on skills that cannot be taught in the classroom, and being able to apply my theoretical knowledge to the real world was the most valuable experience I had during the internship.  In the near future, I hope to attend a graduate program in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology, and then find a job in the field or in a museum. I have thoroughly enjoyed my summer working at PHMC, and I would highly recommend this internship to anyone else interested in archaeology.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

Pochereth Payne's Undergraduate Internship Experience

Today is the final day of my internship in the Section of Archaeology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, and shortly I will begin my senior year as an archaeology major at Mercyhurst University in Erie. Working closely with Dr. Kurt Carr, the goal of my internship project was to organize the artifacts of the Barry Kent projectile point type collection (BKC), and place them into Riker mounts. More than 3,000 projectile points are in the BKC, which also includes other interesting lithic artifacts such as adzes, tool blanks, bifaces, beads, drills, gravers, pendants, steatite vessels, and plummets. The purpose of the project was to improve accessibility to the artifacts, which would ensure that more of the artifacts are used when the staff engages in outreach programs in educational public forums.

Comprised of acquisitions to the museum from a variety of sources throughout the 20^th century, the collection represents over 10,000 years of Native American culture history in eastern Pennsylvania. In the late 1960s, Barry Kent used the projectile points as part of his dissertation (Kent 1970). I was able to meet Dr. Kent this summer and discuss the collection with him, including the research goals for my project. He discussed some of the challenges he faced in his own research and gave me suggestions on avoiding similar circumstances. Dr. Kent also let me know that categorizing points by type can make one crazy. That sentiment coincides with Dr. Carr’s oft stated, “Don’t over think it!”

I prepared for my internship by completing Dr. Carr’s suggested readings, which provided background information on the important sites that aided in building the chronology of eastern Pennsylvania, and the diagnostic projectile point types of the region. The next step was to retrieve the projectile points from storage and organize them by diagnostic type. The types I used are: Kirk, Palmer, Charleston, and St. Charles (Early Archaic); MacCorkle, St. Albans, LeCroy, Neville, Stanly, and Kanawha (Middle Archaic); Piedmont Stemmed Types B and D (Late Archaic); Perkiomen, Lehigh and Susquehanna Broadspears, and Orient Fishtails (Transitional); Hellgrammite (Early Woodland); Jack’s Reef (Middle Woodland) and triangles (Late Woodland). The lithic material categories used are: argillite, chalcedony, chert, jasper, metarhyolite, quartz, and quartzite.

projectile points neatly arranged in Riker mounts for easy viewing

I then confirmed or completed the catalog number for each point, and labeled them with a specimen number as needed. To make sure the catalog number was correctly assigned, I needed to consult the collections archives. Janet Johnson introduced me this database that includes card catalogs, and paper files; some of the documents in those files dated to the early 20^th century and can be thought of as artifacts themselves! Janet helped me master the previous and current museum cataloging systems, and a bit about the history of the collections. Cali Holmes, Andrea Carr and a Rapidograph pen helped me to label the artifacts. Once each point was labeled, the catalog number was put into an Access database along with the descriptive and quantitative details of the point. Finally, the points were put in Riker mounts, photographed and stored in draws.

Pochereth and Steve Nissley discuss the finer "points" of lithic technology during a Learn at Lunchtime event at the State Museum of Pennsylvania

The internship was not just play either! Liz Wagner and I repeatedly battled the beast that is Access. Jim Herbstritt provided garden fresh tomatoes (probably due to the dietary staple ramen noodle discussion) and literature resources. I had the opportunity to flintknap at the State Museum during a Learn at Lunch Time event with a visiting flintknapper, Steve Nissly, which may have involved an assault on innocent chert. There were multiple lithic material type consultations involving our curator in geology, Steve Jasinski and energetic pop-ins from Walter Meshaka (curator in botany). 

 

illustration of a broadspear projectile point, courtesy of Pochereth's friend Amber

On a lighter side, some of the most memorable events were showing off the archaeology lab to my friends Amber and Jack (Amber sketched the broadspear) and  the cookie-based intern farewell parties! Many thanks to everyone for being consistently available, and enthusiastically supportive. Working with you all presented me with a unique view into the daily working life of a team of career archaeologists!

Archaeology exhibit at the Pow-wow on City Island as a part of Kipona celebrations in Harrisburg

This weekend, August 31^st through Monday September 2^nd, our staff along with a few volunteers will be participating in the 16th annual Native American Pow-Wow on City Island, Harrisburg as part of the 2013 Kipona Wine, Art and Blues Festival, the Capital City’s send-off for the unofficial end of Summer. Situated along Championship Way on the far side of Metro Bank Park, home of the Harrisburg Senators, the State Museum of PA’s Section of Archaeology display will include the ever popular recreated 20ft. dugout canoe, artifacts recovered from excavations conducted on City Island in years past, informational brochures on State Museum programs, children's activity worksheets, and the hot off the press 2013 Archaeology Month poster. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather, and we hope to see you this weekend at the pow-wow on City Island.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

Keystone Internship draws to a close

This week we're taking a pause from our county by county archaeological tour of Pennsylvania to spotlight the Section of Archaeology's Keystone Intern this summer, Jennifer Webb.

My name is Jennifer Webb, and I’m a Keystone Intern. (“Hi, Jenn.”) I applied for a PHMC internship in archaeology and GIS at the tail end of my junior year at Kutztown University, where I major in history and anthropology. When I received a callback from Janet Johnson, I was surprised and pleased.

My time at the PHMC is split between Noël Strattan, who supervises the Cultural Resource Geographic Information Survey (CRGIS) at the Bureau of Historic Preservation, and Janet Johnson, a curator in the Section of Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania. For Ms. Strattan, I entered and corrected CRGIS artifact data that State Museum archaeologists had catalogued over the years. My work for Ms. Johnson was a bit more varied, including data entry; cleaning, sorting and re-shelving artifact collections; scanning old archaeological journals; digging at Ephrata Cloister; assisting another intern with a lithics and projectile point typology project; and attending a meeting at Cornwall Iron Furnace.

Regarding the CRGIS, not only was the entire system being overhauled, but in many cases the State Museum and BHP had received conflicting data concerning archaeological sites. It was up to me to convert artifact information to the new system (“brick”, for example, became “architectural—ceramic”) and then resolve the differences between the data sets.

Amy Jukus, the intern coordinator, diversified my days at the PHMC by organizing several tours and field trips for the interns over the course of the summer. These included a walking tour of Harrisburg’s historic district, a special tour of the capitol building and a day trip to both Ephrata Cloister and Landis Valley. In addition, Joe Baker, a Penn DOT archaeologist, arranged a weekly seminar for Penn DOT and Keystone interns. During these seminars, we learned about cultural resource management, heard amusing anecdotes of Mr. Baker’s experiences in historic preservation, and attempted to solve problems that might arise during the course of building a bridge or widening a road. He also took us down to Washington Boro, so we could see in person what we had been working on in theory.

Most of the internship was good, of course, but there was a slight flooding problem in archaeology that occurred one evening that resulted in a massive, multi-departmental effort to move and dry boxes of artifacts. And when I say “slight flooding problem” I mean “a pipe the size of my torso ruptured”. However, it was nice to see all the other PHMC employees coming down to assist as we frantically relocated things. (Don’t worry—as far as I know, no artifacts were harmed.)

Now that I have completed my internship, I am looking forward to my senior year at college and then apply to grad school. I would like to get a master’s degree in archaeology, but I may end up going for a history degree or some other related field, depending on where I am accepted and the programs offered.

Overall, it was a deeply educational experience that I would certainly recommend to anyone interested in museum studies, cultural resource management or historic preservation. The opportunities to meet and work with professionals in the field, as well as the “extracurricular” activities that allowed us to stretch our legs, were very much worth the commute!

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

Another Internship Draws to a Close

This week we share with you some thoughts from the second of our two college interns this semester.  Our interns were great this spring and provided an enormous amount of support for tasks associated with analysis and curation of collections. These students offer a fresh perspective to the curation process and often provide valuable suggestions.  We applaud and thank both Krissy Kramer our intern and guest blogger this week and Sean O’Hara from our blog on May 3, 2013.

 

Internship Reflection

I’m Krissy Kramer. I am majoring in Public History and minoring in Anthropology at Shippensburg University. After volunteering with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Section of Archaeology for a year-at Fort Hunter, the Farm Show, and in the lab- I decided I’d like to try my hand at an internship.

Intern Krissy Kramer (right) assists Liz Wagner (left) and Andrea Carr (middle) with mapping of a prehistoric level at Fort Hunter (36Da159)

Working with the State Museum, the archaeology lab works to preserve, interpret, and provide the public with information focused around our archaeological heritage. Not all history is written down. History that occurs before writing is deemed prehistoric. As a result, an archaeology site may consist of prehistoric or historic artifacts, or a combination of both. The site that I was specifically looking at was City Island (36Da12), a prehistoric site that also included later historic occupations. As a result, I've dealt with looking at a majority of prehistoric artifacts and ecofacts such as fire-cracked rocks, projectile points, hammerstones, animal bone, and debitage. However, I also identified several historic artifacts such as various glass and ceramic vessels but also nails and the occasional coin, comb, or button.

Block excavation at City Island (36Da12)

From cleaning artifacts, to identifying, labeling, and preserving, this internship has taught me that although tedious, context means nearly everything to the archaeologist. Attention to detail, organization, and patience are key traits to working as an archaeologist. As history often incorporates written documents and artifacts, it’s important to study and preserve artifacts correctly in order to fill in the gaps that exist in the written documents. Similarly, many written documents or oral histories may express biased accounts or exclude certain aspects of a peoples or a culture. So by enhancing these traits I am better able to understand what it is like to be a detective, an archaeologist, a historian. These traits are beneficial to a plethora of careers. With that said, these traits will better prepare me for future careers. While I am highly interested in public history, this internship has provided me with a wide array of tasks accompanied by explanations as to why they are necessary in addition to another field that may coincide and intertwine with public history.

Like many other fields, concepts and ideas are always changing. Archaeological and museum standards continuously change as well. I have thoroughly discovered the challenges of dealing with an excavation that has extended over several years and have been processed to varying degrees of completion. As a result, Andrea, my mentor, and I have taken nearly three months to correct and update all of the artifacts from site 36Da12. To bring the collection up to current standards, we corrected and updated artifact inventories, and rehoused artifacts and ecofacts for long term curation. We also edited existing catalog information for digital entry into Microsoft Access. In addition to sorting out these inconsistencies in the collection, we applied the current artifact coding system of The State Museum of Pennsylvania for inventory purposes. In other words, this code is unique only to their archaeology lab and so we needed to properly catalogue the artifacts and their codes and label their bags accordingly. Needless to say, site 36Da12 required a lot of tender loving care. Although the project is still ongoing, Andrea and I, with the help of other lab volunteers, have bagged, coded, preserved, labeled, boxed, and cataloged nearly all of the artifacts from both the prehistoric and historic levels of occupation at the site. Because of this, I became more familiar with Microsoft Access databases, identifying lithic materials and types of artifacts, correct archival materials for storing artifacts, cataloguing color slides, finding artifact proveniences based off of photographs and grid drawings, and more.

cataloging individual fire-cracked rock specimens from City Island (36Da12) in the lab

In addition to focusing on 36Da12, I was able to assist several other archaeologists and perform various tasks throughout my internship. On certain days, I would assist an archaeologist on another project; often times the site that they are currently focused on. One such task involved uncovering specific artifacts that were provided to the lab by PennDot. Another task involved rehousing artifacts to ensure its protection and preservation. Furthermore, I assisted in storing artifact boxes in the storage area, studied artifacts under a microscope, and helped prepare and photograph artifacts in the photo room.

My internship in the lab was a wonderful experience. The staff welcomed me into this internship with open arms, treated me completely like any other member of their staff, and taught me so many details that can only be learned through hands-on experience. They never failed to answer my questions and provided me with the confidence to perform tasks that I wouldn’t have thought possible since I have not had much experience or knowledge in archaeology. After this internship, I will be interning at the Cumberland County Historical Society to design the upcoming exhibit “Treasures from the Archives” while attending an archaeological field school in Belize focused on studying the Classic Maya Period. I hope to continue working with my archaeology family in the lab and eventually gaining a career related to public history in some way or form.


WEEKEND EVENT
Join our senior curators Kurt Carr and Janet Johnson as they take the dugout canoe on the road again. This Saturday, May 18th, they will be at the grand opening of the Lancaster Longhouse located at the Hans Herr House and Museum, 1849 Hans Herr Drive, Willow Street, PA. Come check out the replica canoe and the traditional tools used in it's construction from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. For more information about the event visit the following websites. Lancaster Longhouse or Hans Herr House.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

Reflections as internship comes to a close

This week we welcome a guest blogger to our growing list of blogs and delay the return to our journey across Pennsylvania’s archaeological landscape by county. The Archaeology Section has been fortunate to have two interns this semester, Krissy Kramer from Shippensburg University and Sean O’Hara from Elizabethtown College. Both of these students have done a fantastic job with their various tasks and projects and we appreciate their dedication and contribution to the “team”.  Please take this opportunity to read about Sean’s experience with the Section and if you are a student, think about joining us in the future for an internship.

My name is Sean O’Hara. I am a senior Anthropology/Sociology major at Elizabethtown College and will be graduating this May. For my last spring semester I interned with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Section of Archaeology located in Harrisburg. I hope after graduation to find a job in research, data management or an analyst type job. After taking a yearlong intensive research class in the Anthropology/Sociology department and writing over a dozen research papers as an Anthropology major, I became really interested in doing a research oriented, internship program.

   

                The first few weeks of my internship were spent helping Dr. Kurt Carr with his research on Paleoindian fluted point sites by creating data tables for his analysis. I gathered up a series of reports that he was using and collected information on the number of tools and their respective lithic material type. Using this information I created tables of Pennsylvania sites with fluted points and other tools, such as endscrapers, that the Paleoindians used. The sites ranged in size from only a few dozen tools to thousands of stone tools.  Some of the reports contained tables, but others required careful reading and recording of the tool quantities. Attention to detail was important to make sure that I did not repeat any numbers when a report didn’t include a table. 

intern Sean O'Hara crunching the numbers on the computer for Dr. Carr

I also helped Dr. Carr review his list of Paleoindian sites in Pennsylvania and clean up the database. This took several days to thoroughly review and required comparison with research databases and site recording data in the Cultural Resources Geographic Information system (CRGIS).  This exercise was important to insure that the analysis was based on accurate figures.  As expected, this was a time consuming undertaking that Dr. Carr hadn’t been able to complete given the demands of his schedule.  It was during this project that I noticed that the physiographic codes for the sites were wrong.  Due to a change in data codes in the GIS system, it became apparent that some of our data was using both the old and new codes. Consequently, this required conversion of the codes and data alignment between the two systems. 

   

intern, and soon to be Elizabethtown College gradutate, Sean O'Hara cataloging an artifact collection in the State Museum of PA's archaeology lab

               

  I assisted Janet Johnson with some research on early bottle seals. She had two old glass bottle seals that required identification. I started off by taking pictures of them, and then tried to identify the writing on each. One of the seals had a clear picture so it did not require much of an effort. The seal had a “B” in one corner, a picture of a distiller, and a “2” in roman numerals in another corner. The “B” was the easiest to identify, the “roman numeral 2” however took a bit of work to identify. Janet and I looked at it under a magnifying glass and a microscope to try and figure it out. At first we thought it was an “H” but the middle of the “H” after a time made us think otherwise. The picture of the distiller threw us off at first but the device looked familiar to me. I looked it up online and realized it was a distiller. I had seen it before when I was a chemistry major. I spent the rest of the day looking up which company could have made it. Janet knew that it had to have come from the 17^th or 18^th century. My research into this did not turn up much, just that the letter and number represented the model number. Sadly, I could not find the name of the company.

Glass bottle seal reasearched by intern Sean O'Hara

Throughout my internship I performed a wide variety of other jobs such as data entry, cataloging and I even got to do some field work at Fort Hunter in the middle of last winter, but research was by far my favorite. Overall, my internship here was a great experience. I met and worked with a great bunch of people and learned a lot. I hope this experience will help me in the future especially since I will be graduating soon and will need a job. I had the opportunity to do a wide variety of tasks but I really enjoyed doing the detailed research. I would recommend interning at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Section of Archaeology to anyone interested in the field of archaeology or anthropology. Thanks to everyone whom I had the pleasure of working with for a wonderful and memorable experience.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .