Exercise 2

Archaeology Lab   ANTL 207

 

Virtual Dig

 

14 & 19 January 2010

 

 

How does one get started doing archaeology?  This activity will provide you with an understanding of how one constructs important parts of the research design by having you make choices at the beginning of your project.  By the end of this exercise you should have a very good idea of the range of decisions archaeologists are required to make prior to beginning a research project.  By now you should know that Virtual Dig takes place at the Paleolithic site of Combe-Capelle, France, where actual field investigations were carried out in the early 1990’s.

You’ll turn in answers to each of the questions below for your Exercise 2 grade. Make sure that you include your name and date at the top of your paper.  You can either hand-write your answers or you can type them in MS Word and print them out in the archaeology lab to submit.  If you don’t finish today you can turn in Exercise 2 by the end of class on Tuesday, the 19th of January.

 

By now you should have read Chapters 3, 8, 9 & 10 of Virtual Dig.  These chapters are .pdf files (one file for each chapter) that can be found in the folder named “ANTL 207 Spring 2010” on the desktop of each computer in the Archaeology Lab.  If you haven’t finished reading these then do so now as you’ll need the information in each of these chapters in order to proceed with Exercise 2.

 

1).  Open Virtual Dig on the desktop by clicking on the icon with the green computer screen with the trowell.  Go to File in the upper left corner of the Main Menu (gray) screen, then click on New and give your Virtual Dig file a name you can remember as you’ll be using Virtual Dig for several other exercises this semester.

 

2).  Next, work on getting your project budget together.  Under ‘Setup,’ go to ‘place excavation units.’  What factors influence your decisions on a) where to place your excavation units and b) how many units you will excavate?

 

3).  Go to ‘set excavation methods.’  Read “a word about” first.  Then make sure you read the short text found at the top of each tabbed section.  This will help you to decide what excavation methods to use, what kind of crew you need, etc.  You’ll see that as you slide the bars below two or more field tools the relative percentages for use of each field tool changes (the more troweling you do the less picking or shoveling, etc.)

 

4).  Once you’ve decided how you will excavate the site and who will be a part of your project you’ll need to think about and decide on your living expenses.  Next, go ahead and purchase your equipment and supplies.  Watch your budget totals change (under “Projected Project Budget”) as your decisions on what to purchase or rent change.  Keep an eye on how things like total food costs or total vehicle costs change with each decision you make.  Is it important for archaeologists to keep an eye on how their budget changes during this decision-making process?  Why?  Try to provide a rationale for why you made the choices you made in terms of personnel, equipment, transportation, etc.  In other words, what were the reasons you made the choices you made?  Not sure on certain things – then say so and say why.

 

5).  Go to submit budget for review.  How does your budget look?  Look at the overall rating and recommendation sections at the bottom.  If your budget was rejected, why?  Summarize the comments your reviewers made about your budget.  How did you address those comments – what changes did you make and in what areas of your proposed project did you make the changes?

 

6).  Take a look at your budget chart when you’re submitting your proposal for review.  What two items make up the majority of money you’re spending on your project?  Based on whatever ideas you had previously about archaeological research projects, does this seem unusual in any way, or not really?  Why or why not?