This week the class was busy working on their final projects, which include trench and field work analyses, GIS mapping, oral histories, a history of gendered spaces at Carleton and Women’s Leagues in general across the country, and public outreach. On Tuesday, we discussed the issues of storage space, which is of special interest because the course is almost over and there is the question of what should be done with the artifacts retrieved from the Women’s League Cabin (Figures 1 and 2). We also discussed how one goes about determining the value of archaeological finds in order to decide if they should be stored for future analysis or discarded. This is particularly pertinent to our work, as we have a fair amount of trash that has been collected. As well, considering the high concentrations of objects such as glass shards found at the site, it is debatable whether the benefit of keeping every single shard is greater than the cost of energy and space put into storing them.

Figure 1: Artifacts recovered from the survey units at the cabin

Figure 2: Artifacts from Trench 2

Later in class, people broke off into their individual groups to work on their projects (Figures 3 and 4). The last of the artifacts from the site were cleaned, and individuals began compiling data relevant to their topics. The time was productive, with photogrammetry models produced, artifact catalogs created, findings compiled, archival information researched, and the website upkept. Thursday we picked up where we had left off on Tuesday, and Mary Savina and Austin Mason were in class to provided assistance. The projects are coming along nicely, and everyone is working hard to finish their drafts for Tuesday.

Figure 3: Several groups hard at work

Figure 4: Groups working on their projects