This Week in Photos: Ancient Methods

A student’s clay-caked hands in an anthropology course serve as inspiration for this week’s photo series.

Students take their seats and form a wide circle in the middle of a King Hall classroom. Each person takes a lump of clay and pulls smaller pieces from it, rolling long round strips as the sticky material coats their fingers. The strips are stacked on top of each other and manipulated into a circular shape. Creating a perfect bowl isn’t the objective in this classroom lab.

A  key component in the Archaeological Lab Methods course Professor of Anthropology Amy Margaris teaches is for students to gain a better understanding of the materials and methods used by ancient civilizations. Readings in practical and theoretical problems in archaeology help guide student’s survey of basic methods used for artifact analysis, and for recording, managing, and interpreting archaeological data. The course also considers emerging trends in archaeological data sharing and collections building that are facilitated through the use of digital media. 

See more photos on Oberlin’s Flickr page.