Computed Tomography (CT) Road-mapping for Micro-excavations of Archaeological Artifacts

Computed Tomography (CT) Road-mapping for Micro-excavations of Archaeological Artifacts

– blog post by Ed Bormann This past semester I took the course “Practicing Archaeology” with Professor Giblin at Quinnipiac University. The final project in class was to design a lab exercise that would help students learn a key concept in archaeological methods. I wanted to come up with a lab that would not only be interesting and allow us to put what we had learned in class into practice, but would also give me data and an idea of what I could be doing in Hungary this summer as part of the NSF-REU BAKOTA field school. The general idea was easy enough to come up with, find some way…

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End of the season presentation

End of the season presentation

Yesterday we had our end of the season party and some of the students threw together a little presentation about BAKOTA 2014 excavation season. Here is a slightly reduced version of it. Thank you, Amy, Martin, Monique and Zsolt for spearheading this and everyone else for contributing!

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Typical day at the BAKOTA project

Typical day at the BAKOTA project

As we are nearing the end of the season, we are breaking from the usual routine more and more. Yesterday the last day of excavations at Békés 103 turned out to be second to the last and the most atypical we’ve ever had. It started with a rain. Crazy rain and howling wind woke many of us in the middle of the night. Justine and Katie both were out of beds saving our pottery and bones left to dry on the terrace the day before. Not surprisingly, people were slow to get out of their beds for the breakfast. As the rain kept pouring, all but Julia, Monique and Russell,…

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Introducing BAKOTA team members: Justine Tynan, project lab manager

Introducing BAKOTA team members: Justine Tynan, project lab manager

The past four weeks excavations at the Bekes 103 Jegvermi-kert cemetery proved to be an invaluable learning experience to all the students at the project. In the mornings we excavate at the site, polishing our archaeological methods and techniques, in the afternoons we work in the lab cleaning and sorting artifacts, filling paperwork, sorting heavy fraction, analyzing osteological remains, and of course microexcavating the urns brought from the field. In addition to these general tasks shared by everyone, every one of us has more specific, personal assignments, working closely with one of the staff members. For example, Russell is in charge of digitalizing our maps and is being mentored by Paul….

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Field trip

Field trip

After the three day trip to Pecica (Pecska), Romania and very unsettling internet connection problems, we are once again back online and ready to give you an insider look at Bekes 103 cemetery excavations, but first let us tell you about our trip. This past weekend we have visited our friends at the Pecica archaeological project. This international team is uniting scientists from USA, Romania and Hungary, excavating at Santul Mare (The Big Ditch) site in northwest Romania, on the right bank of the Mures river. The occupation layers of a large fortified tell and adjacent peripheral village span Early and Middle Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the Middle…

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Ready, Steady, Go!

Ready, Steady, Go!

The third excavation season at the Békés 103 cemetery in Eastern Hungary is now past its meridian and, although it took us a while to set things in motion, the student blog of the BAKOTA project is now up and running. Now let us introduce ourselves. Joining the international, multidisciplinary team of researchers this year are nine undergraduate and four graduate students from Canada, USA, Hungary and Germany. * Kalyan is a PhD student at the University of Toronto * Katie and Amy are PhD students at the University of Pittsburgh * Martin is studying for his Masters at the University of Tübingen, Germany * Monique and Russell are recent…

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