Monday, April 21, 2008

Station 8

Station 8 is a finds tray located near the upright shaker screen. It holds a collection of artifacts that when touched will whisper what information archaeologists can glean from them. For example:

Chunk of Painted Plaster: I was probably knocked off a wall when it was re-plastered and re-painted, and wound up in the trash. Sometimes my decor can suggest when I was made.

Broken Pottery: Archaeologists can use me to date layers, and also possibly tell what I held in antiquity.

Roman Coin: Archaeologists love me as I can be dated very precisely. However, I usually don't come out of the ground this clean. Usually the soil corrodes me, and I have to be cleaned.

Unfired Clay: I may indicate that there was a kiln for making pottery located nearby.

Fragment of a Stone Sculpture: Even though I am fragmentary, archaeologists may be able to recognize what I looked like from other copies they may have seen before. I was actually a little statue of a Household God, which can also tell the archaeologists about ancient religion.

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