What do archaeologists do with the artifacts they find at a site?

An arrowhead, near a bison rib, at the Bliss Hill Site

Questions:

Where do they take them?
Once an artifact is removed from a site, it can never be returned to that same place. Therefore it is very important that an archaeologist keep very accurate, detailed records about every artifact... it's location, position, description, condition, and what other artifacts or features were located next to it. All of this information is vital to piecing together an accurate "picture" of the people who inhabited this site, including what they did there and what was important to their way of life.

Artifacts are taken to an archaeology lab, where they are cleaned, glued back together if necessary, and then labeled and catalogued into a database program. This preliminary work will help the archaeologist to do a careful, scientific job of analyzing and interpreting the artifacts.

Who helps with this?
Often times this laboratory work is done by college students who are taking a "field course" in archaeology. These students spend their time both at the site and in the lab. The field supervisor, or archaeology profession is usually there to assist the students.

How do the artifacts tell a story about the people who lived there?
After all of the information is entered into the database, and other experts have shared their reports on the date (age) of a certain artifact or the soil itself, a picture of the site begins to develop. This "picture" represents an unwritten record of what the site looked like, who lived or worked there, and how these people lived.

Then what happens to the artifacts?
Usually they are stored in labelled boxes in laboratories or museums. Sometimes scientists come back to study them again, especially if new methods are invented to help analyze the artifacts. Some artifacts are used in museum displays.

How do I find out about the artifacts and what the scientists learned?
Scientists write reports about their finds and what they mean about the past. Many of these reports are complicated, but sometimes the archaeologists write magazine stories for magazines like Archaeology or help make videos about the sites.

Archaeology seems pretty complicated. Is it?
Doing archaeology is complicated. But the archaeologist has help from lots of other scientists.
Find out about the experts who help with archaeology.

Go to archaeology main page