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There were four main tasks that I helped to complete throughout the season to
keep everything running smoothly and figure out what was happening within each context of finds.

The first part of the lab work was pottery washing.

Everyone who participated in the project helped with washing the ceramic finds so that any designs and colors could be more easily seen once the dirt was scrubbed away and so the artifacts remained clean. We washed the pottery that was brought down from the site every day—unless it was raining so badly that we couldn’t be outside—so that we could keep up with all the finds that were excavated.

The next step in lab work was artifact reading where we would record as much precursory information about the artifacts as possible. We recorded each artifact into the database alongside their context numbers to give a sense for the assemblage throughout the contexts. For the ceramic sherds, the team would partner with Dr. James and Dr. Barbarič to record the identifiable sherds from each context and give them a preliminary vessel shape and date range. I would also take counts and weights of the three main categories of ceramic vessels: table, cooking, and coarse ware. Knowing the types of ceramics being used on site was helpful for recognizing that this was not a domestic settlement and that something far more interesting was happening at this site.

After the ceramic pieces were read into the database, the pieces that required more research to identify or that could give new information about the assemblage were catalogued. A lot of my time in the lab was spent cataloguing pottery sherds. One goal we achieved for this season was to finish cataloguing the artifacts discovered in previous seasons and to work through as many sherds from this season as possible. Cataloguing included taking the dimension and weight of each sherd and describing the texture of the surface, the strength of the firing technique, the interior color and inclusions of the clay (also known as the fabric of a vessel), and any exterior decorations. After detailing the specific piece, I would research comparable shapes and decorations from other authors to help verify the classification of the shape, origins, and date of the original vessel. With this information, we were able to get a clearer sense of the activities and uses of the ceramics at Gradina Rat and how the people living on Brač were connecting with traders from other countries.

The last piece of lab work was photographing some of the especially important finds to have clear photos of special artifacts, the ranges of imported vessels, and the common local vessels. Having these photos will allow other scholars to work with the artifacts found at this site and will aid in visually accompanying any research written about this site. Our set up was simple yet effective. I only occasionally had to carefully hide clay supports to help get certain angles of the pieces.

At the very end of the day, we would all gather down at the beach to watch the sunset after everyone finished their afternoon tasks, and sometimes we’d jump into the magical waters of the Adriatic and theorize about what exactly the ancient people were doing up on that hill.

Claire Hook just graduated with a Masters of Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research interests are in the responses and treatment of child mortality in Ancient Greece, and the ceramic assemblages that accompany them. 

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