Juicy tidbits – A day in the life of an archaeologist

My interest in archaeology and palaeoanthropology was once again sparked with the discovery of Homo Naledi.

I spoke to Dr Anton van Vollenhoven, an archaeologist, to find out more about his work.

Q: How did you get involved in archaeology? Was it a passion from an early age?

A: I remember that I always used to like seeing people doing excavations when it was shown on TV.

I always liked history and archaeology is just history working with a different source material, namely what has been left in the earth by humans.

My final decision was made in Grade Eleven that this is what I wanted to do. I love what I am doing and have never looked back.

Q: What would a day on site involve for you?

A: Of course this may differ from the type of sites that you may encounter or whether you are doing a survey or excavations.

There is no pattern as you do not know what you will discover and that of course determines what needs to be done.

Typically, however, on arrival, one would unpack the equipment and have a short discussion with the ‘trench commanders’ (each excavation will have a person in control of what you expect from them for the day).

They may also give suggestions as they are on that excavation all the time.

The ordinary trowelling and brushing can then start.

My work would be to move between the different excavations to give guidance.

At the right time, for instance after the completion of a layer, I will document the excavation.

That involves taking photographs and doing a description of the layer, as well as any mentionable features.

If necessary, plans will also be drawn of such layers or features, a site map is also drawn.

In order to do this the site is surveyed by surveying equipment.

All these things I do while the others excavate.

At each excavation the soil coming from it is sieved and artefacts retrieved.

The trench commander is in control of that and also to pack these in bags according to excavation number, layer, type etc.

I will inspect these throughout the day to make sure that artefacts have been identified correctly.

Interesting finds are usually also shown to everyone and if some of these might indicate that we may be close to something else, the excavators would be warned to be on the lookout.

For instance, we may find a few pieces of bone which may indicate a burial.

I would then sensitise them to that and indicate how they should continue excavating in order to expose this.

Should an excavation encounter anything out of the ordinary, I am called immediately to investigate and determine how it should be dealt with.

Sometimes it is not important and they will be told to continue as usual, but if important it will be dealt with accordingly.

At the end of the day, all artefacts are packed in bags and then placed in boxes, each excavation having their own box.

The equipment is packed away until the next day and the artefacts will be analysed once back at the laboratory in Pretoria.

Q: What are some of the most memorable moments on site and why?

A: Whenever something ‘special’ is found, it always creates a hustle.

It can range from a simple pot shard to something like skeletal remains, it depends on the site.

It is important to know that it actually is not about individual finds, but the story these tell as a collective.

This means that you are excited when you find something that fits your theory, or changes it.

For the ordinary excavators it usually is different, for instance, if you only find undecorated pottery you are extremely excited to find even one piece with decoration.

Of course the decoration also gives clues about the people who lived there and, therefore, is not only aesthetically pleasing but quite important.

People like finding beads, especially beads that differ from those mostly found on the particular site.

When working on a Colonial site, where you usually find ceramics and glass shards, it is something special to find complete or almost complete vessels with markings on. These usually give us clues about the manufacturers and gives an idea of the network these people of the past had.

In short, we do not look for something specifically, but anything that may add information to what we know about the site.

Q: What are some of your most memorable finds?

A: On one site I once decided (due to a shortage of time) to only extend a small section (1m by 0.5m) of a specific excavation.

In that section I found the remains of two pairs of scissors, two files and what looked like the dew claws of a lion.

It later turned out to be ordinary bone worked into looking like dew claws.

The combination of artefacts indicated that a person likely sat at that spot working the bone into jewellery and that he most likely wanted to indicate he was a great hunter.

Since it is a site from the Anglo-Boer War, it made a lot a sense for this local person to impress the British soldiers by doing something like this.

It may not have given me much additional information on the site, but was very interesting indeed.

At another site I once found a coin dating back to 1895 with the head of Paul Kruger thereon.

Again, I already knew the site was used for trading, but it was nice finding such an extraordinary artefact.

Q: When teaching others about archaeology what do you feel is the most important lesson?

A: That we can learn a lot from archaeology and that it is an extension of what we find in history books.

We, therefore, need to take care of our heritage, it is extremely fragile and should we allow archaeological sites to be demolished, without having them researched, we would lose a vast amount of knowledge.

The interview left me feeling a deep appreciation for even the simplest detail in history.