What an Archaeologist Does
(in elementary school age level terms;  underlined terms are used in the "Puzzles for Fun" section)

An archaeologist is someone who studies people and what they did in the past from the things they left behind.  Archaeologists might study early Native Americans, early European settlers, such as the pilgrims, or old factory buildings.

An archaeologist looks for artifacts (objects made by people) that will reveal more about the past.  Artifacts can be many different things.  An arrowhead is an artifact, or beads made by Native Americans and so is an old coin.  

Archaeologists also look for features.  When someone disturbs the ground and there is evidence left from that activity, it is called a feature.  A feature can’t be moved from the site.  One example of a feature is a hearth or firepit, which is like a fireplace.  Sometimes an archaeologist might find a hole dug for people to store food or other things.  This is called a storage pit.  Some storage pits are just trash dumps.  Archaeologists may even find the bottom walls of houses called foundations.  Some Native American houses were built with tree saplings. They  cut saplings and put the bottoms into small holes dug into the ground.  These holes are called postholes.  Archaeologists working on historic sites even find evidence of a privy.  A privy is an outhouse or bathroom -- Yuck!  

Archaeologists call the place where they find artifacts in the ground a site.  If archaeologists are lucky, they also find features at a site. They find artifacts and features by digging into the ground and carefully looking for them.   

At a site an archaeologist uses many tools to do his job.  He uses maps and compasses to locate the site.  Then he uses picks and shovels to dig, and buckets to carry the dirt to a screen. Archaeologists dig small amounts of dirt at a time.  

Archaeologists carefully record where everything is found by making maps and drawings of everywhere they dig.  This information helps the archaeologists interpret what happened at that location.   

Archaeologists record how much they excavate at a time by using a line level on a string attached to a spike or stake.  A level is a metal bar with a glass window in it.  In the window is a bubble.  When the bubble is in the middle of the window, it is level.  A line level is a smaller version of this which hangs on a string.  Archaeologists measure the depth from the level string to the ground before digging.  When an artifact or feature is located, the archaeologists uses the line level and string to measure again.  This tells the archaeologist how deep the find was below the ground surface.  

Once an artifact is found, an archaeologist uses a special tool called a trowel that looks like the drawing shown here.  He uses it to carefully dig and scrape around the artifact.  To find smaller artifacts, dirt is poured through a screen.  The screen is like a net that catches very small artifacts like seeds and bones, which can be hard to see.  The photo below shows some people using a screen.

Photographs of troweling and sifting:

           
(Click on images to see larger version of photo.)

Artifacts that are found are put in bags.  Each bag is labeled with the site name or site number, the exact location where the items were found, and lists the items in the bag.  This information is also recorded on a form.  Forms indicate the location where the archaeologist was digging on the site, how it was excavated, and what was found.  He also makes drawings or graphs on the excavation soils and features.  Everyone places their forms in a site notebook.  This information is very important to the archaeologists when they begin to study their finds back at a laboratory.  

Examples of Things an Archaeologist might Find at a Native American Site

There are special stone tool artifacts that an archaeologist may find.  One is called a hammerstone.  A hammerstone is used like a hammer to break and shape other rocks into tools.  Maybe you have seen an arrowhead which was a very important type of tool for Native American hunting activities.  Archaeologists call these tools projectile points because many were probably used on spears rather than arrows.   Another common stone tool used by Native Americans is a scraper.  This is a stone with a sharp edge that is used to cut and scrape hides.  A flake is a piece of stone that a hammerstone breaks off a rock while trying to make a tool.  These are very common items on prehistoric sites.  

    Native Americans also used clay to form bowls and cups.  They heated the clay to harden it into the shapes.  This fired clay is called pottery.  You can see a drawing of a piece of pottery here.  

All this information is like a puzzle that the archaeologist uses to piece together what happened at that location over time.      Archaeologists love history because it teaches us about the past.  Maybe in the future an archaeologist will be telling other kids about us!

Click here to view a slide presentation on archaeologists.  Please be patient, as it might take some time for the larger images to appear.

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Page updated on 03 December 2004

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