by Eric Carlucci
Beginning the spring 2019 semester with the Wylie House project meant continuing the categorizing and labeling of artifacts from the excavation. I ended the fall semester in the middle of working with the glass artifacts, and was unable to finish this by the beginning of winter break. When the semester started back up, I returned right where I left off.
The glass was a bit easier to label overall, as the B72 labeling material applied and dried much easier than it had on the ceramics. The same general process of labeling was performed: first a layer of B72, write the account number, category, and subcategory numbers over the dried B72; then another layer over top of what was written to prevent smudging. Instead of doing every piece that was large enough, it was determined the best process would be to label the ten largest pieces in each subcategory. This was decided because the glass was far more numerous than the ceramics, with over two thousand sherds, and because the vast majority was either aqua or clear flat glass. Some container glass and other types were found, but the overwhelming majority belonged to these other two classifications.
With the help of Lauren, an undergraduate student, we were able to finish labeling all the glass as of the end of January. Following the completion of the glass, we turned our attention to the next major category: metal artifacts. The metal was to be done a bit differently. Instead of labeling the artifacts directly, we were to just fill out the account card in the same way we had done with the other artifacts and use a specialized tag for larger and more unique artifacts. We did not have the special tags as of the time of this writing, but we will be doing this as soon as we receive them.