Archaeologist Problems

Canadian archaeologist, exploring problems that many if not all archaeologists, and probably some geologists and palaeontologists, regularly face. Redbubble shop with some fun archaeology designs: ArchaeoProblems.

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist problems: when your field vest looks like it’s been through a war zone at the ripe old age of 5.

[archaeologistproblems]

Accurate. But I'm compensating with an extremely scuffed hard hat and boots that have been patched with glue... twice.

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist problems: when your field vest looks like it’s been through a war zone at the ripe old age of 5.

[stranglerfigpudding]

i don't care about monday's goals, tuesday wednesday dig some holes, thursday clean my mandibles, it's friday i'm a bug

[theannoyingmosquitoinyourroom]

happy its friday im a bug friday!!

[archaeologistproblems]

I fully thought this was about being an archaeologist, excavating and cleaning bones, until the very last word.

[silveve]

mandibles didn’t tip you off?

[archaeologistproblems]

My dude, a jawbone is properly called a mandible:

[archaeologistproblems]

I assume they meant, big ol' bug jaws:

[stranglerfigpudding]

i don't care about monday's goals, tuesday wednesday dig some holes, thursday clean my mandibles, it's friday i'm a bug

[theannoyingmosquitoinyourroom]

happy its friday im a bug friday!!

[archaeologistproblems]

I fully thought this was about being an archaeologist, excavating and cleaning bones, until the very last word.

[silveve]

mandibles didn’t tip you off?

[archaeologistproblems]

My dude, a jawbone is properly called a mandible:

[stranglerfigpudding]

i don't care about monday's goals, tuesday wednesday dig some holes, thursday clean my mandibles, it's friday i'm a bug

[theannoyingmosquitoinyourroom]

happy its friday im a bug friday!!

[archaeologistproblems]

I fully thought this was about being an archaeologist, excavating and cleaning bones, until the very last word.

[archaeologistproblems]

I mean, we all have mandibles, though definitely not like bugs do. Just sometimes archaeologists have extras to clean, because we dug them up.

[stranglerfigpudding]

i don't care about monday's goals, tuesday wednesday dig some holes, thursday clean my mandibles, it's friday i'm a bug

[theannoyingmosquitoinyourroom]

happy its friday im a bug friday!!

[archaeologistproblems]

I fully thought this was about being an archaeologist, excavating and cleaning bones, until the very last word.

[archaeologistproblems]

What the gold rush means to most people: Prospectors! Dusty mine cars on tracks in the wild west! Gold nuggets!

What the gold rush means to an archaeologist: Hmm, where on this 100-acre plot of land covered in contaminated mine tailings do I think these clowns might have buried barrels full of literal cyanide?

[archaeologistproblems]

How dare you leave this nugget hiding in the notes!

[garden-eel-draws]

Why were they burying barrels of cyanide? How and why would you even compile enough cyanide to fill multiple barrels???

[archaeologistproblems]

My friend let me introduce you to the terrifying process of cyanidation, wherein finely crushed ore containing traces of gold is made into a slurry by adding water, then transferred into vats known as “slime separators,” where potassium cyanide is then added to leach the gold into a liquid. Slaked lime is used to prevent the cyanide from going into full Murder Mode as hydrogen cyanide. The gold is then separated from the cyanide through one of a series of processes that I’m not really qualified to explain, but I think there are a few websites that talk about them if you want to google them.

But the key point here: from what I can tell, cyanide has been the main method of getting gold out of the ground for the last 120 years. (Yes, this process is still used today.) Before this technology came along, instead a thin coating of mercury was spread onto a copper plate, and the ore was allowed to wash over it. The gold stuck to the mercury, creating an amalgam, and then the amalgam was scraped off the plate and the mercury was boiled off (urk) to leave the gold behind.

And when processing mills shut down historically, why bother to dispose of your leftover deadly chemicals properly, when you can just bury them in your local tailings pile, which is already contaminated with mercury and arsenic? The known case of this happening in my local area was revealed through a bloom of “Prussian Blue” (ferro cyanide) on the surface of the tailings. Luckily, this is a fairly stable form of cyanide. Unluckily, geologists are crazier than archaeologists and they went ahead and dug a sample test unit right next to it, even knowing what it was, because science.

When I said to myself, “I’ll be an industrial archaeologist. It’ll be cool,” I did not foresee the terrifying knowledge it would unleash upon me.

[garden-eel-draws]

I’m from Goldrush Country and I didn’t know this. All the gold-mining-related historical attractions around here are about good old-fashioned panning and pick-axes. Now I’m incredibly glad I’ve never had any urge to go explore the suspiciously colorful hills left in the wake of various mining operations.

[archaeologistproblems]

Eek! Please don’t play in tailings piles and outflows folks, they are Bad News. “Oh but it’s lovely sand we want to take our ATVs out on it and let our kids build sandcastles” NO. DO NOT.

[garden-eel-draws]

Reblogging because some desert-dwellers might not know this. Yes, those pretty hills are probably within ATV driving distance of Amargosa, Ocotillo, Buttercup, Superstition or whatever other recreational area you might be camped out at, but rainbow-colored dirt is usually rainbow-colored for toxic reasons!

[archaeologistproblems]

Absolutely! And bear in mind too, not all tailings are brightly coloured - the ones in my area are just light grey. “Sand in spots where sand isn’t common” is sometimes the only warning sign.

[archaeologistproblems]

I’m reviving this post because I’m doing up a Health & Safety protocol for digging near a mining site and folks. I did the math based on some recent soil tests. The tailings near my test site contain enough arsenic that ½ teaspoon of soil (tailings) easily contains a fatal dose of arsenic for an adult. Please stay safe and wash your hands thoroughly before eating/drinking/smoking if you aren’t 100% certain what the dirt is like where you’re digging.

[thatdisasterauthor]

And this is why we found a whole quart of mercury in my grandparent’s basement! Old timey prospectors would really just do shit.

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

[Image ID: Tumblr reply from highEmpressOfDirt reading: a different kind of Mine Sweeper /End ID]

[archaeologistproblems]

This is emphatically not a desert-specific problem, just FYI. All of the contaminated mines I’ve encountered have been in spruce-dominated forests and bogs in Atlantic Canada. This is a worldwide issue.

[Image ID: A screenshot of a tag reading “#I’m nowhere near a desert but good info for those who are”]

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist problems: when you think you’ve got the poison ivy handled: you’re digging in a Tyvek suit, double gloved, rubber boots, etc etc, you finish the project, run all your gear through a thorough and very soapy car wash…

And you forget to wash your kit bag, and then let the bag touch your bare forearms during your next field project.

(Send calamine lotion pls.)

[archaeologistproblems]

What the gold rush means to most people: Prospectors! Dusty mine cars on tracks in the wild west! Gold nuggets!

What the gold rush means to an archaeologist: Hmm, where on this 100-acre plot of land covered in contaminated mine tailings do I think these clowns might have buried barrels full of literal cyanide?

[archaeologistproblems]

How dare you leave this nugget hiding in the notes!

[garden-eel-draws]

Why were they burying barrels of cyanide? How and why would you even compile enough cyanide to fill multiple barrels???

[archaeologistproblems]

My friend let me introduce you to the terrifying process of cyanidation, wherein finely crushed ore containing traces of gold is made into a slurry by adding water, then transferred into vats known as “slime separators,” where potassium cyanide is then added to leach the gold into a liquid. Slaked lime is used to prevent the cyanide from going into full Murder Mode as hydrogen cyanide. The gold is then separated from the cyanide through one of a series of processes that I’m not really qualified to explain, but I think there are a few websites that talk about them if you want to google them.

But the key point here: from what I can tell, cyanide has been the main method of getting gold out of the ground for the last 120 years. (Yes, this process is still used today.) Before this technology came along, instead a thin coating of mercury was spread onto a copper plate, and the ore was allowed to wash over it. The gold stuck to the mercury, creating an amalgam, and then the amalgam was scraped off the plate and the mercury was boiled off (urk) to leave the gold behind.

And when processing mills shut down historically, why bother to dispose of your leftover deadly chemicals properly, when you can just bury them in your local tailings pile, which is already contaminated with mercury and arsenic? The known case of this happening in my local area was revealed through a bloom of “Prussian Blue” (ferro cyanide) on the surface of the tailings. Luckily, this is a fairly stable form of cyanide. Unluckily, geologists are crazier than archaeologists and they went ahead and dug a sample test unit right next to it, even knowing what it was, because science.

When I said to myself, “I’ll be an industrial archaeologist. It’ll be cool,” I did not foresee the terrifying knowledge it would unleash upon me.

[garden-eel-draws]

I’m from Goldrush Country and I didn’t know this. All the gold-mining-related historical attractions around here are about good old-fashioned panning and pick-axes. Now I’m incredibly glad I’ve never had any urge to go explore the suspiciously colorful hills left in the wake of various mining operations.

[archaeologistproblems]

Eek! Please don’t play in tailings piles and outflows folks, they are Bad News. “Oh but it’s lovely sand we want to take our ATVs out on it and let our kids build sandcastles” NO. DO NOT.

[garden-eel-draws]

Reblogging because some desert-dwellers might not know this. Yes, those pretty hills are probably within ATV driving distance of Amargosa, Ocotillo, Buttercup, Superstition or whatever other recreational area you might be camped out at, but rainbow-colored dirt is usually rainbow-colored for toxic reasons!

[archaeologistproblems]

Absolutely! And bear in mind too, not all tailings are brightly coloured - the ones in my area are just light grey. “Sand in spots where sand isn’t common” is sometimes the only warning sign.

[archaeologistproblems]

I’m reviving this post because I’m doing up a Health & Safety protocol for digging near a mining site and folks. I did the math based on some recent soil tests. The tailings near my test site contain enough arsenic that ½ teaspoon of soil (tailings) easily contains a fatal dose of arsenic for an adult. Please stay safe and wash your hands thoroughly before eating/drinking/smoking if you aren’t 100% certain what the dirt is like where you’re digging.

[thatdisasterauthor]

And this is why we found a whole quart of mercury in my grandparent’s basement! Old timey prospectors would really just do shit.

[archaeologistproblems]

For those tagging this post, there’s no need to tag this as USA or US history. I’m a Canadian archaeologist, all of my field experience is in Canada, and gold rushes happened and created dangerous mine waste in many countries all over the world. It’s very much not a unique US experience.

(Editing to add, I hope I'm not coming off as rude or snarky, just trying to highlight that it's dangerous to assume that these issues, or really most issues, are always specifically about the USA.)

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist Problems: Cheez-Its.

[hasufin]

Least it's not a condom in one of the artifact bags.

[archaeologistproblems]

On one memorable occasion, it was a condom wrapper in my test trench, so the rest of the day was spent waiting for the jump scare of finding the associated used condom.

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist Problems: Cheez-Its.

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist problems: Wet Sharpies

Archaeologists and field scientists of the world, does the tiniest bit of misty rain render your Sharpies Completely Useless when you try to label your artifact and sample bags? Today I discovered this bad boy, and holy shit it writes on wet flagging tape and wet artifact bags like it's nothing. Not sure yet if the pigment will fade sooner than a Sharpie, but for rainy days, this is a game-changer for me.

[hasufin]

I am deeply interested to know how long it takes to fade, because while the museum currently does not have a terrible backlog, in the past we've hard sample bags that have taken us years to process. And if these things do well under humid conditions and don't fade I will give the field guys a gross of them.

[archaeologistproblems]

I'll update later this spring - I've just used it on tyvek labels and flagging tape in a "high stress" environment (seaside, sun exposure, Canadian climate) where Sharpie fades in a few months. Someone in the comments on this post says they behave slightly better than Sharpie for fading, too!

[evolutionsbedingt]

An excellent discovery and I'm definitely curious to hear how it holds up in fieldwork! The only thing I'm a little worried about is how the solvent they must be using will interact with the thin plastic of artifact bags, especially over time – maybe something to bring up with your local restoration/conservation specialists? A quick search hasn't given me any info of what the ink is made of, so some testing may be needed.

[archaeologistproblems]

A very fair point! These are definitely something different than Sharpie material, they seem to slightly repel water as I write, so maybe oil-based? Must be some kind of quick-evaporating solvent still involved, though, because they don't seem to dry much slower than sharpies.

To be clear though, especially since these Inkzalls are a bit more expensive and harder to find than sharpies (cheapest I've seen individually is $2 CAD at Home Hardware, other suppliers seem to aim for $6-7), I'm planning to keep one in my field kit for rainy days but still stick to sharpies for dry days and for labelling the final artifact bags that I submit to the museum once artifacts are catalogued - I can still recognize a tested product for its longevity in lab/storage conditions!

[artemistakenidentity]

Does it seem like it smudges or gets on other surfaces? I'm looking at it for the dozens of bags of frozen food that get damp as soon as they're pulled out to label them. We currently use sharpie and it's impossible to dry the bags to a point that the marker will work. For me, they don't need to last long, but they do need to last rubbing against dozens if not hundreds of other bags in the freezers.

[archaeologistproblems]

Let’s go scientific on this, I’ve done some base level tests! Here’s how Sharpie and Inkzall behaved on bags.

Methodology: Writing by both instruments was placed on both the clear and “white block label” (slightly textured) sections of a dry artifact bag. After about 30 seconds to 1 minute of drying time, both were rubbed with a clean finger. Next, a Q-tip wetted with pure acetone was rubbed over the left-most letters (fresh for each test), and another Q-tip of 70% isopropyl alcohol was rubbed over the right-most letters (again fresh Q-tip for each test).

Results: Both perform similarly in the rub test on the white block (very little transfer) and Inkzall performs slightly better on smooth clear plastic, though both can be rubbed off smooth plastic with low effort. Both solvents reactivated/removed both inks, with isopropyl alcohol creating more “bleed” on both, but overall Sharpie removing more cleanly and Inkzall producing a more pronounced purplish “bleed”.

[artemistakenidentity]

Fascinating, thank you! Ok, I'm going to have to pick one up tomorrow to check how it does on our wet surfaces. If it's even marginally better than a sharpie then it's better than what we have.

Also really interesting that the acetone and rubbing alcohol to some extent degraded the white, but only under the marker.

[archaeologistproblems]

I think the removal of the white actually comes from the solvent in the markers during writing; if I write with a Sharpie and then quickly smear with my finger it's always left the same empty spot. So acetone and rubbing alcohol are just exposing the previous change.

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist problems: Wet Sharpies

Archaeologists and field scientists of the world, does the tiniest bit of misty rain render your Sharpies Completely Useless when you try to label your artifact and sample bags? Today I discovered this bad boy, and holy shit it writes on wet flagging tape and wet artifact bags like it's nothing. Not sure yet if the pigment will fade sooner than a Sharpie, but for rainy days, this is a game-changer for me.

[hasufin]

I am deeply interested to know how long it takes to fade, because while the museum currently does not have a terrible backlog, in the past we've hard sample bags that have taken us years to process. And if these things do well under humid conditions and don't fade I will give the field guys a gross of them.

[archaeologistproblems]

I'll update later this spring - I've just used it on tyvek labels and flagging tape in a "high stress" environment (seaside, sun exposure, Canadian climate) where Sharpie fades in a few months. Someone in the comments on this post says they behave slightly better than Sharpie for fading, too!

[evolutionsbedingt]

An excellent discovery and I'm definitely curious to hear how it holds up in fieldwork! The only thing I'm a little worried about is how the solvent they must be using will interact with the thin plastic of artifact bags, especially over time – maybe something to bring up with your local restoration/conservation specialists? A quick search hasn't given me any info of what the ink is made of, so some testing may be needed.

[archaeologistproblems]

A very fair point! These are definitely something different than Sharpie material, they seem to slightly repel water as I write, so maybe oil-based? Must be some kind of quick-evaporating solvent still involved, though, because they don't seem to dry much slower than sharpies.

To be clear though, especially since these Inkzalls are a bit more expensive and harder to find than sharpies (cheapest I've seen individually is $2 CAD at Home Hardware, other suppliers seem to aim for $6-7), I'm planning to keep one in my field kit for rainy days but still stick to sharpies for dry days and for labelling the final artifact bags that I submit to the museum once artifacts are catalogued - I can still recognize a tested product for its longevity in lab/storage conditions!

[artemistakenidentity]

Does it seem like it smudges or gets on other surfaces? I'm looking at it for the dozens of bags of frozen food that get damp as soon as they're pulled out to label them. We currently use sharpie and it's impossible to dry the bags to a point that the marker will work. For me, they don't need to last long, but they do need to last rubbing against dozens if not hundreds of other bags in the freezers.

[archaeologistproblems]

Let’s go scientific on this, I’ve done some base level tests! Here’s how Sharpie and Inkzall behaved on bags.

Methodology: Writing by both instruments was placed on both the clear and “white block label” (slightly textured) sections of a dry artifact bag. After about 30 seconds to 1 minute of drying time, both were rubbed with a clean finger. Next, a Q-tip wetted with pure acetone was rubbed over the left-most letters (fresh for each test), and another Q-tip of 70% isopropyl alcohol was rubbed over the right-most letters (again fresh Q-tip for each test).

Results: Both perform similarly in the rub test on the white block (very little transfer) and Inkzall performs slightly better on smooth clear plastic, though both can be rubbed off smooth plastic with low effort. Both solvents reactivated/removed both inks, with isopropyl alcohol creating more “bleed” on both, but overall Sharpie removing more cleanly and Inkzall producing a more pronounced purplish “bleed”.

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist problems: Wet Sharpies

Archaeologists and field scientists of the world, does the tiniest bit of misty rain render your Sharpies Completely Useless when you try to label your artifact and sample bags? Today I discovered this bad boy, and holy shit it writes on wet flagging tape and wet artifact bags like it's nothing. Not sure yet if the pigment will fade sooner than a Sharpie, but for rainy days, this is a game-changer for me.

[hasufin]

I am deeply interested to know how long it takes to fade, because while the museum currently does not have a terrible backlog, in the past we've hard sample bags that have taken us years to process. And if these things do well under humid conditions and don't fade I will give the field guys a gross of them.

[archaeologistproblems]

I'll update later this spring - I've just used it on tyvek labels and flagging tape in a "high stress" environment (seaside, sun exposure, Canadian climate) where Sharpie fades in a few months. Someone in the comments on this post says they behave slightly better than Sharpie for fading, too!

[evolutionsbedingt]

An excellent discovery and I'm definitely curious to hear how it holds up in fieldwork! The only thing I'm a little worried about is how the solvent they must be using will interact with the thin plastic of artifact bags, especially over time – maybe something to bring up with your local restoration/conservation specialists? A quick search hasn't given me any info of what the ink is made of, so some testing may be needed.

[archaeologistproblems]

A very fair point! These are definitely something different than Sharpie material, they seem to slightly repel water as I write, so maybe oil-based? Must be some kind of quick-evaporating solvent still involved, though, because they don't seem to dry much slower than sharpies.

To be clear though, especially since these Inkzalls are a bit more expensive and harder to find than sharpies (cheapest I've seen individually is $2 CAD at Home Hardware, other suppliers seem to aim for $6-7), I'm planning to keep one in my field kit for rainy days but still stick to sharpies for dry days and for labelling the final artifact bags that I submit to the museum once artifacts are catalogued - I can still recognize a tested product for its longevity in lab/storage conditions!

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist problems: Wet Sharpies

Archaeologists and field scientists of the world, does the tiniest bit of misty rain render your Sharpies Completely Useless when you try to label your artifact and sample bags? Today I discovered this bad boy, and holy shit it writes on wet flagging tape and wet artifact bags like it's nothing. Not sure yet if the pigment will fade sooner than a Sharpie, but for rainy days, this is a game-changer for me.

[hasufin]

I am deeply interested to know how long it takes to fade, because while the museum currently does not have a terrible backlog, in the past we've hard sample bags that have taken us years to process. And if these things do well under humid conditions and don't fade I will give the field guys a gross of them.

[archaeologistproblems]

I'll update later this spring - I've just used it on tyvek labels and flagging tape in a "high stress" environment (seaside, sun exposure, Canadian climate) where Sharpie fades in a few months. Someone in the comments on this post says they behave slightly better than Sharpie for fading, too!

[archaeologistproblems]

Archaeologist problems: Wet Sharpies

Archaeologists and field scientists of the world, does the tiniest bit of misty rain render your Sharpies Completely Useless when you try to label your artifact and sample bags? Today I discovered this bad boy, and holy shit it writes on wet flagging tape and wet artifact bags like it's nothing. Not sure yet if the pigment will fade sooner than a Sharpie, but for rainy days, this is a game-changer for me.

[radawaycuntt]

Instead of going to work tomorrow why don’t we all just dig a really deep hole

[archaeologysucks]

Unfortunately for me ….