In this post, I would like to discuss what will be included within the Mapping Morton Village interactive map. For the past several weeks, Nikki Silva and myself have been working on the written content of Mapping Morton Village. We decided to write the content of the site with the public in mind, focusing on giving general background information. The map will have multiple layers, showing the extent of each year’s excavations. Each layer will highlight a different aspect of archaeological excavation and research, as well as give examples from Morton Village.
Topics that we will include are:
- Salvage archaeology vs. long-term research project
- Excavation methods at Morton Village
- Lab protocols and the importance of cataloging and inventory
- Household and community organization
- Ceramic analyses
- Paleoethnobotany
- Magnetometry
- Zooarchaeology
- Lithic analyses
- Public archaeology
These topics were chosen to discuss what archaeology is, and how the Morton Village research project is run, and the various areas of research that are ongoing at the site. As the Morton Village site was discovered through a highway expansion project, we are able to discuss the differences in priorities and methods between salvage archaeology and long-term research projects.
As we were writing, we made sure to first describe why each aspect of archaeology is important and how what can be learned from different types of analysis. Also, we will be integrating specific examples and images of artifacts recovered at Morton Village for each topic. While we are still fine turning and making edits to the content of the site, we look forward to sharing more information about the written content.
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