The Fiske Center Blog

Weblog for the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Open Lab at Plimoth Plantation

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By Jess Hughston

Field school students Jared, Ashby, and Jacob at work in the Plimoth Plantation lab.

Field school students Jared, Ashby, and Jacob at work in the Plimoth Plantation lab.

The organization of the Project 400 formal lab component is reflective of a broader movement within the discipline to include stakeholders and members of the broader community in the interpretation of their histories. Collections management and processing of archaeological materials has traditionally remained an exclusive activity that takes place out of view of the public. At Plimoth Plantation, Curator of Collections, Kate Ness has been working to move collections processing out of secluded spaces and into the public eye.
Field school students are working in the museum’s newly relocated archaeology lab in the Visitor Center with the primary aim of encouraging public interaction with the aspects of artifact analysis and interpretation that they are so often excluded from. The lab itself is set-up in the museum’s inviting gallery space. The artifact processing tables are arranged in a horseshoe configuration where field students at work are facing outward in all directions. Their activities can be viewed through a window-lined wall that faces the museum courtyard. In addition, museum patrons are invited to enter the space where they can ask questions and interact with the archaeologists at work.

Excavated fragments of a milkpan, a reconstructed vessel, and a modern recreation based on these examples.

Excavated fragments of a milkpan, a reconstructed vessel, and a modern recreation based on these examples.

One critical display in the lab communicates how archaeologists make interpretations of the fragmented material remains they recover from the ground. The display is laid out as a series, first exhibiting fragments of a 17th-century milk pan excavated from Marshfield, Massachusetts, and then a similar vessel comprised of mended fragments, and, finally, a reproduction milk pan that would be created for use by the interpreters in the English Village at Plimoth Plantation.

Fragments of reproduction vessels for visitors to sort.

Fragments of reproduction vessels for visitors to sort.

Visitors are also invited to work hands on at a separate table, mending vessel fragments of reproduction 17th-century ceramics to gain a better sense of how archaeologists piece together the past.
Materials processed within the lab space include previously held collections at Plimoth Plantation and artifacts recovered this season from Burial Hill and Cole’s Hill. Engaging with both sets of materials permits students to contribute to Plimoth Plantation’s efforts to universalize their system of collections tracking, which includes digitalization for increased accessibility, and to provide an additional layer of transparency for collaborators, stakeholders and community members that are closely following this year’s excavations.

Jess Hughston is a graduate student in the Historical Archaeology MA program at UMass Boston.

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