From the Field to the Lab: The Steps After the Dig is Finished

As a student from Salem State University (SSU), majoring in English and minoring in history, I had the privilege of being a part of the Strawbery Banke Field and Lab School run by Dr. Alix Martin and Dr. Tad Baker. During the field school experience, my fellow students and I took part in learning about the Colonel Paul Wentworth House, which dates from 1701. This house is significant because of its history within Rollinsford, New Hampshire, during the 18th century. It was moved from Rollinsford to Dover, Massachusetts, in 1936 by one of Wentworth’s descendants, and then was brought back by the Association for Rollinsford Culture and History (ARCH) in 2002. Today, the house is sitting in its own backyard, where you can visit and learn about it.

 

What we were trying to find in the dig was not only information about the Wentworths or confirmation of the house's original location, but also to mainly find the recorded “Slave Quarters” and any artifacts that tell us more about the enslaved people who lived and worked on the property. While we did not confirm that outbuildings behind the main house were used as slave quarters, we did find more artifacts that can help answer our questions. This leads us to the aftermath of the dig: The Lab.

Dr. Baker always says that 20% of the work is in the field and 80% is in the lab. Many new potential archaeologists, or those who want to be more hands-on with history like me, do not know a lot about what comes next after troweling through dirt, rocks, and roots. What comes next is where the real work and discoveries begin. The lab section was broken up into three parts, per my experience in Strawbery Banke’s Lab School: washing and cataloging, research, and presentation.

Step 1 is washing each artifact. This year, we had over 80 bags of artifacts that were labelled with a context number, unit quadrants, initials, and the treatment level we were at when digging the unit. We do this to confirm what the objects are because in the field, a lot of objects and rocks are covered in dirt and mud, making it hard to identify objects of importance or unimportance. When finished washing, we put them on a screen to dry and place each kind of object into its own bag (e.g., nails with nails, ceramics with ceramics, etc.) and place them all together to later catalog and then subdivide the artifacts into more bags.

Right after washing, we each took a catalog sheet, a bag of artifacts, and a pencil, and learned how to catalog all of the artifacts in our bags. In the bags are all the artifacts found in a layer of soil. A bag could consist of 1 or more objects, such as nails, ceramics, glass, coins, personal items (e.g., buttons), and more. Since similar items were put together in a bag after drying on the screens, we subdivided those items and placed them in their own bag. To illustrate, when we have all the ceramics together, we put all the whiteware together, all the creamware together, all the porcelain together, and so on. In the catalog sheet, every type of artifact has its own line and catalog number. For instance, if I were doing porcelain first, I would put the catalog number as 1 and then fill in the necessary information, such as artifact type/class (e.g., personal, refined earthenware, etc.), material (e.g., creamware, metal, etc.), number of items of that type, portion (e.g., sherd, fragment, etc.), item (e.g., bowl, coin, etc.), and description (see picture below). After cataloging and putting the types in their own bags with tags/cards that state almost all the information from the catalog sheet and the initials of those who excavated and cataloged the artifacts, we finally put all the ceramics, nails, etc., from last year and this year together in a box, so then it is easier to find a specific item.

A small note to remember would be that the reason why we are so thorough with labelling the where, what, who, and when the artifact was found is that archaeology is a destructive science. When we dig up a site, we can not dig it up the same way again. Therefore, all the labels allow us to refer back to the plans, maps, tables, and people who excavated the unit to be able to remember where in the vicinity we found the artifact and how deep in the ground it was. With all this information, we can draw conclusions and hypotheses about the house based on what we found and where we found it. 

Step 2 is researching. Since there were many items found at the Wentworth’s estate, that would be a lot for only one lab student to research within a week. Therefore, all the lab students were able to pick what they wanted to research. For instance, some chose to research prints, and others are doing research similar to mine. I chose to research creamware, also known as Queen's ware. I chose this because we found pieces of a plate during the dig, and I wanted to see it again and potentially put it together. In addition, in Strawbery Banke’s collection, there is a decent amount of creamware to research. Creamware is identifiable by its creamy color made from lead mixed in with glaze; however, over time, the color can look slightly green (see below) due to the moisture in the soil, which allows me to observe an example of what the ware looks like normally and what it looks like over time. Hopefully, when you research a type of ceramic, you will also have some kind of variation of that ceramic you are researching, because having the item in person makes it all the more different than looking at it in a book or onscreen.

I started my research with a creamware plate (see above, after I added pieces to it), adding the pieces we found this year to last year's pieces, which were mostly already assembled. Another important note would be that with every piece of ceramic that makes up the item, we needed to label every piece with a reversible label that indicated the location of the dig, context number, and catalogue number. Once again, we put labels on so we can retrace our steps to find where a piece of ceramic was at the dig.

After, I started digging into the history of creamware by going through books and websites. Creamware is a refined earthenware that was mostly used for dining because of its buff body and sturdiness. Josiah Wedgewood, a potter who helped create Whieldonware and invented fruitware, pearlware, and Jasperware, perfected the form and color of creamware in 1762. In the same year, Wedgewood gifted Queen Charlotte of England a set of creamware that was later known as Queen's Ware when the ware quickly became popular. According to Saint Mary's University Department of Anthropology, the design of the creamware gifted to the queen was a raised pattern known as the Royal pattern or, according to other websites such as the NYC Landmark Preservation Commission and Chinasearch.co.uk, "Queen's Shape." Creamware could take form in multiple vessels such as plates, bowls, vases, etc., and may have hand-painted and printed glazes. Unfortunately, creamware was not in production after 1820 due to it going out of style.

When I finished my research and pieced together as much as I could of the plate from last year, I began working on a Queen's ware plate with a Royal pattern that we found this year. There are over 200 pieces, and we managed to almost piece together half of the plate in two days (see above).

Step 3 is presenting findings to the public. In this step, we are not only presenting our artifacts to people, but we are also relating the artifact to our overarching research as well as to our audience. While the plates I helped put together seem like nothing, it gives us insight into what the daily lives of the Wentworths and the enslaved were like. The enslaved women were most likely the people plating the food and washing these creamware dishes after every meal the Wentworths ate. In addition, this tells us that the family was very trendy and had the money to keep up with trends in the 18th century. This step is crucial to connect with the community and to verify your work.

To conclude, by taking part in the lab, I was able to gain a full understanding of what goes on behind the scenes in museums and archaeology. I am thankful for the hands-on experiences that the Field and Lab schools gave me. Both allowed me to be actively working with a museum while diving deeper into museum studies, public history, and anthropology. The archeological techniques I learned and practiced at Strawbery Banke are the first of many that I will learn about.

Bibliography

“Wedgwood Queen's Plain – Queen's Shape.” Chinasearch.co.uk, https://www.chinasearch.co.uk/wedgwood/queens-plain---queens-shape/.

“Creamware.” Saint Mary's University, Department of Anthropology, https://www.smu.ca/anthropology/anthropology-creamware.html.

Mankowitz, Wolf. “Wedgewood.” 3rd ed., Magna Books, 1992.

Verdi, Elisa Gonzales. “Digging Up History.” New Hampshire Magazine, 8 Apr. 2026, https://www.nhmagazine.com/digging-up-history/.